Breakdown: Why NASA is once again teaming up with NOAA

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - UPDATE: NASA and United Launch Alliance have delayed the launch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Joint Polar Satellite System-2 (JPSS-2) due to the need to replace a battery on board the Centaur upper stage of the launch vehicle.

Launch is now planned for November 10 at 3:25 AM CT.

PREVIOUS: A new weather satellite is being launched into outer space on Tuesday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) JPSS-2 satellite will lift off before dawn atop an Atlas V rocket, and will join the fleet of Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) satellites.

For more than a decade, the JPSS satellites, a partnership between NOAA and NASA, have each orbited the Earth from the North to the South Pole 14 times a day, flying over every spot on the planet at least twice.

As these satellites race around Earth, they take measurements and snap images that help us plan for hurricanes, severe weather, snowstorms and floods. They map and monitor wildfires and volcanoes.

They closely watch our oceans, spotting harmful algal blooms and measuring sea surface temperatures and sea ice. They provide critical data to global weather models. They tell us about the things that fill up our air and our lungs, like dust, smoke and smog.

They also take the temperature of our lower and upper atmosphere. By contributing to a long-term archive of these temperature measurements, they show us how our planet’s atmosphere is changing.

JPSS-2 is the third satellite in the Joint Polar Satellite System series and will be renamed to NOAA-21 after reaching orbit.

It will join a constellation of JPSS satellites that orbit from the North to the South pole, circling Earth 14 times a day, providing a full view of the entire globe twice daily.

The NOAA/NASA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite, and NOAA-20, previously known as JPSS-1, are both already in orbit.

On behalf of NOAA, NASA develops and builds the instruments, spacecraft, and ground system, and launches the satellites, which NOAA operates.

JPSS-2 will launch from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in Lompoc, California November 1.

JPSS-2 is part of a long history of NOAA and NASA satellites that date back to 1960, when the first weather satellite, TIROS-1 launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida, and it will be followed by two more nearly identical satellites, JPSS-3 and JPSS-4.

This means we’ll likely have data from these satellites until the late 2030s.

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