In its eighth mission of 2022, United Launch Alliance (ULA) has efficiently launched the second Joint Polar Satellite tv for pc System (JPSS-2) for the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—second in a four-strong fleet of weather-watching spacecraft, the first of which rose to orbit back in November 2017—alongside a cutting-edge inflatable re-entry demonstrator for NASA. Liftoff of ULA’s venerable Atlas V occurred from House Launch Advanced (SLC)-3E at Vandenberg House Power Base, Calif., at 1:49 a.m. PST (4:49 a.m. EST) Thursday, 10 November.
Flying pole-to-pole at an altitude of 512 miles (824 kilometers)—and crossing the equator 14 instances each day—JPSS-2 helps the US’ next-generation environmental monitoring community. It seeks to extend the timeliness and accuracy of climatic and weather-related forecasting and decrease dangers to human life and property.
When it enters service, JPSS-2 can be numerically redesignated “NOAA-21”, becoming a member of a protracted line of environmental monitoring satellites, with a heritage that extends again to 1970. It’s anticipated to stay operational properly into the following decade.
The 6,460-pound (2,930-kilogram) spacecraft, geared up with 4 extremely superior weather-watching devices, was constructed by Northrop Grumman, on the muse of its tried-and-true LEOStar-3 “bus”. The third and fourth members of the fleet—additionally fabricated by Northrop Grumman—are slated to launch in 2028 and 2032, respectively, with the Ball Aerospace-built JPSS-1 having been positioned into orbit 5 years in the past.
Aboard JPSS-2, the 22-channel Superior Expertise Microwave Sounder (ATMS) will furnish sounding observations to retrieve atmospheric moisture and temperature profiles for real-time civilian climate forecasting and local weather monitoring. In improvement by Northrop Grumman since 2016, the instrument was fully assembled and entered its environmental testing phase in October 2019.
The Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS), constructed by L3Harris Applied sciences, produces high-resolution, three-dimensional “maps” of moistures, pressures and temperatures to reinforce climate forecasting fashions and enhance understanding of extra “common” climatic phenomena, together with El Niño and La Niña. CrIS was declared structurally full and passed its pre-ship review in May 2020.
JPSS-2’s closing pair of devices are the Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS), manufactured by Ball Aerospace, which consists of a trio of hyperspectral devices to increase a quarter-century-plus of steady ozone measurements. And the Seen Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), constructed by Raytheon, will gather world seen and infrared knowledge of land, oceanic and atmospheric parameters at very excessive temporal resolutions.
A fifth sensor for JPSS-2—the Radiation Funds Instrument (RBI)—was formally deleted by NASA in January 2018. Supposed to map the Dwelling Planet’s emitted radiation with a extremely delicate scanning radiometer, RBI suffered vital price overruns and technical difficulties which led it to be defunded below the Trump Administration and precipitated its eventual cancelation.
In the late summer and early fall of 2020, JPSS-2’s devices—firstly VIIRS, then OMPS, adopted by ATMS and lastly CrIS—commenced cargo to Northrop Grumman’s facility in Gilbert, Ariz., for integration aboard the spacecraft. Following integration, a three-month Thermal Vacuum (TVAC) testing section was concluded last June.
JPSS-2’s 30-foot-long (10-meter) five-panel photo voltaic array underwent deployment trials in late July and early August. A minor check anomaly with VIIRS and resultant gear repairs delayed the completion of TVAC by a month, which pushed the launch date back from 30 September to no sooner than 1 November.
Lastly, on 19 August JPSS-2 arrived through truck from Northrop Grumman’s facility in Gilbert, Ariz., on the Astrotech House Operations Facility at Vandenberg. By this time, the {hardware} for the mission’s launch car had additionally begun to reach on the West Coast.
In March 2017, NASA tapped ULA for the $170.6 million launch companies contract to ship JPSS-2 through an Atlas V to its supposed orbit. On the time of the contract award, the mission was focused to fly out of Vandenberg in November 2021, however a mix of things, together with instrument and JPSS-2 testing and the ravages of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, pushed that focus on again by a full 12 months.
Flying in its “401” configuration—with a 14-foot-diameter (4-meter) payload fairing, no strap-on solid-fueled boosters and a single-engine Centaur—the {hardware} for the Atlas V arrived at Vandenberg from ULA’s manufacturing unit in Decatur, Ala., over the summer time. Just a few days after the arrival of JPSS-2, the mission’s second payload additionally arrived.
The Bernard Kutter Low-Earth Orbit Flight Check of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID) was sponsored by the Expertise Demonstration Missions program of NASA’s House Expertise Mission Directorate (STMD). It seeks to judge new strategies and methodologies to re-enter and land payloads, together with by thinner atmospheres, like that of Mars.
NOAA introduced back in July 2018 that it was providing “a satellite tv for pc rideshare” on the JPSS-2 mission. A year later LOFTID formally got here aboard.
Present heat-shield expertise is bodily inflexible, and rigidly constrained by the parameters of a launch car’s warmth defend. Added to that, a lot bigger payloads—equal in dimension and mass to a small home—can be wanted to get the primary human explorers safely onto the dusty floor of the Crimson Planet.
The problem is difficult but additional by the truth that Mars’ ambiance is thick sufficient to offer a measure of aerodynamic drag, however not sufficient to facilitate efficient and fast deceleration of an incoming payload. LOFTID will deploy an inflatable aeroshell, some 19.7 toes (6 meters) in diameter and 5.9 toes (1.79 meters) tall when absolutely unfurled.
LOFTID is devoted to the reminiscence of Bernard Kutter, ULA’s supervisor of superior packages, who died in August 2020. Mr. Kutter was a tireless advocate for low-cost entry to area and a champion of inflatable heat-shield applied sciences. A small portion of his ashes are flying aboard LOFTID.
Last month, tightly wrapped inside its drum-like canister, LOFTID was mated to the JPSS-2 spacecraft, bringing the whole peak of the mixed payload “stack” to 27 toes (9 meters). Just a few days later, the stack was encapsulated inside its 4-meter-wide (14-meter) Prolonged Payload Fairing (EPF).
Elsewhere, the Atlas V’s Launch Car On Stand (LVOS) milestone passed off on 28 September, when the 107-foot-long (33-meter) Frequent Core Booster (CCB) was hoisted vertical contained in the Cell Service Tower (MST) at Vandenberg’s historic SLC-3E. Over the next days, the interstage, Centaur and “boattail”—the decrease portion of the payload fairing—had been additionally added.
The EPF and its encapsulated payloads had been transferred to the pad and lifted into place atop the stack on 18 October, topping off the Mighty Atlas at a peak of 191 toes (58.2 meters). The Launch Readiness Evaluate (LRR) initially focused a gap launch try on 1 November, however on 29 October groups elected to delay the mission till no before 9 November (and in the end settled on the tenth) in response to the need to replace a faulty battery aboard the Centaur.
A second LRR final Tuesday produced a definitive “Go for Launch”, focusing on a 36-minute “window” that opened at 1:25 a.m. PST (4:25 a.m. EST). Climate situations at Vandenberg had been predicted to be 90-percent-favorable, with scattered low stratus clouds and visibility for 1-3 miles (1.6-5 kilometers).
After holding briefly at T-4 minutes to rectify a Liquid Oxygen (LOX) sensor problem, the Mighty Atlas powered uphill at 1:49 a.m. PST (4:49 a.m. EST), its Russian-heritage RD-180 engine offering greater than 860,000 kilos (390,000 kilograms) of thrust for the preliminary 4 minutes of the flight.
Following the separation of the CCB, the Centaur ignited for the primary of three extremely complicated “burns” to ship JPSS-2 into orbit and pre-position LOFTID for re-entry.
The primary Centaur burn lasted virtually 13 minutes and was anticipated to culminate within the protected deployment of JPSS-2 at 28 minutes after launch. Two extra burns, lasting slightly below a minute apiece, served to decrease the higher stage’s altitude to ascertain LOFTID on its correct trajectory to intercept Earth’s ambiance.
After attaining the right situations, the Centaur was set to reorient itself, the launch canister was to be ejected and the higher stage will “wake” LOFTID to start its inflation course of utilizing gaseous nitrogen. Centaur will execute a spin-up maneuver to stabilize the payload, earlier than releasing it at 75 minutes after launch.
Throughout re-entry, LOFTID’s versatile thermal safety system is predicted to resist peak temperatures in extra of two,200 levels Celsius (4,000 levels Fahrenheit). The demonstrator is focusing on a parachute-aided splashdown within the Pacific Ocean, east of Hawaii, for subsequent restoration and knowledge evaluation.
Thursday’s flight was the 301st and closing launch of an Atlas-class car from Vandenberg, ending a historic journey which started manner again to September 1959. It additionally represented the seventeenth flight of an Atlas V from the West Coast since March 2008.
It’s anticipated that the rocket’s 20 remaining flights—including a Crewed Flight Test (CFT) and 6 Submit-Certification Missions (PCMs) of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner to the Worldwide House Station (ISS)—will originate from storied Space Launch Complex (SLC)-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla.
With in the present day’s launch, ULA wraps up a banner 2022 of eight missions, together with seven by the Atlas V and the final flight by the Delta IV Heavy out of Vandenberg in September.
These included Boeing’s CFT, three devoted missions for the U.S. House Power, a categorized payload on behalf of the Nationwide Reconnaissance Workplace, two for NOAA—JPSS-2 and the latest Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-T)—and a dual-stacked pair of economic communications satellites for Luxembourg-headquartered SES.
