NOAA-N Prime Launches On Third Try
Feb 6, 2009
Michael Mecham mecham@aviationweek.com
The NOAA-N Prime polar-orbiting weather satellite was delivered to space early Friday morning from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.
Launch of the 3,130-pound Lockheed Martin spacecraft on a Boeing Delta II 7320-10C from Vandenberg's Space Launch Complex-2W came at 2:22 a.m. PDT.
Launch officials report the Delta hit its apogee and perigee targets and the spacecraft was healthy. The end of a 21-day checkout will signal the start of the satellite's operations for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from a 464-nautical mile circular orbit inclined 98.73 degrees.
NOAA-N Prime, which will become NOAA-19 after its checkout, is the 43rd in the Television and Infrared Observational Satellite (TIROS) weather series that dates to the dawn of U.S. weather forecasting from space. It also is the 16th Advanced TIROS-N (ATN), the fourth generation of that series, which was first launched in 1978.
Besides its meteorological duties, the ATN series has become part of a satellite-based search-and-rescue system jointly operated with Russia that has been credited with saving more than 24,500 since 1982.
The new satellite is virtually identical to NOAA-18, which it replaces, but features a few upgrades. In addition to an advanced data recording system, it will carry a search-and-rescue tracker with greater bandwidth, both provided by the French space agency CNES. Mission cost, including the spacecraft and instruments, launch, technical support, and a 14-month launch delay, is $564 million.
NOAA-18 was launched in 2005 as the weather agency's prime afternoon spacecraft. The ATN series has a mean operating lifetime of 3.75 years. Although still fulfilling its primary mission, NOAA-18 has experienced instrument degradation.
NOAA operates ATN's in morning and afternoon sun-synchronous orbits with 102-minute periods.
The NASA-NOAA series is to be replaced beginning in 2013 by the National Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite System from Northrop Grumman. NPOESS will be operated jointly by NASA, NOAA and the Defense Dept. to provide weather data for civil and military users.
But NPOESS has suffered technical and funding issues that have delayed the program. To bridge the expected gap between ATN and its coverage, an interim NPOESS Preparatory Project spacecraft is to be launched in 2010.
Photo: Bill Hartenstein
