Earth  ID: 14199

One last pre-launch stretch for JPSS-2 solar array

It was a moment seven years in the making. While a crowd of team members looked on, a crew of engineers at a Northrop Grumman facility in Gilbert, Arizona performed the final major test of the JPSS-2 spacecraft before it departs for Vandenberg Space Force Base ahead of its planned November launch. After a series of loud bangs indicating the satellite’s solar array was free to extend, the accordion-like set of 2,000 solar cells stretched out 50 feet from the satellite and locked into place.

The satellite, to be renamed NOAA-21 upon reaching orbit, will continue the work of its predecessors NOAA-20 (formerly known as JPSS-1) and the NOAA-NASA Suomi-NPP. JPSS-2 will scan our planet as it orbits from the North to the South Pole, crossing the equator 14 times a day. From 512 miles above Earth, it will capture data that inform weather forecasts and provide important information on extreme weather events and climate change.
 

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Credits

Jefferson Beck (KBR Wyle Services, LLC): Lead Producer
Jenny Marder Fadoul (Telophase): Lead Writer
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

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Mission:
Joint Polar Satellite System - JPSS

Keywords:
SVS >> Climate
SVS >> Weather
GCMD >> Location >> Arizona
NASA Science >> Earth
SVS >> Engineering
SVS >> JPSS

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0