NASA Launches JPL-Built Earth Science Experiment
October 31, 2011
Written by Alan Buis
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, CA – An experiment developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, to test technology for future NASA Earth science missions was aboard one of five small “CubeSat” research satellites that hitched a ride to orbit October 28th with NASA’s newest Earth-observing satellite, the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project, or NPP.
NPP, which successfully launched aboard a Delta II rocket from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base, will provide critical data to help scientists understand the dynamics of long-term climate patterns and help meteorologists improve short-term weather forecasts. A little more than an hour and a half after launch, the Delta II deployed the five auxiliary CubeSat payloads, which are the third installment of a series of NASA Educational Launch of Nanosatellite missions, also known as ELaNa III.
Delta II Lifts Off Carrying NPP, JPL CubeSat Experiment At Vandenberg Air Force Base's Space Launch Complex-2 in California, a United Launch Alliance Delta II lifts off carrying NASA's National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project (NPP) spacecraft and five small CubeSat research satellites, including M-Cubed, with features JPL's COVE Earth science technology experiment. (Image credit: NASA/ULA)
