[SatNews] Everything is progressing in advance of the launch of a Delta II rocket carrying NASA’s SMAP payload. The mission is set to lift off on Thursday, January 29 from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 6:20 a.m. PST. Today’s L-2 forecast shows an 80 percent chance of favorable weather conditions for launch. Mission Description: SMAP will provide the most accurate, highest-resolution global measurements of soil moisture ever obtained from space and will detect whether the ground is frozen or thawed. The data will be used to enhance scientists' understanding of the processes that link Earth's water, energy and carbon cycles.
Weather Forecast
Overall probability of violating weather constraints: 20 percent
Area of concern: Thick clouds
Overall probability of violating weather constraints for 24 Hour Delay: 10 percent
Area of concern: Surface winds
A United Launch Alliance Delta II 7320-10 launch vehicle will deliver the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite to a 370-nmi (685 km) near-circular orbit. Liftoff will be from Space Launch Complex-2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
SMAP is one of four first-tier missions recommended by the National Research Council’s Committee on Earth Science and Applications from Space. The accuracy, resolution, and global coverage of SMAP soil moisture and freeze/thaw measurements are invaluable across many science and applications disciplines including hydrology, climate, carbon cycle, and the meteorological, environmental and ecology applications communities.
Future water resources are a critical societal impact of climate change, and scientific understanding of how such change may affect water supply and food production is crucial for policy makers. Current climate model uncertainties result in disagreement on whether there will be more or less water regionally compared to today; SMAP data will enable climate models to be brought into agreement on future trends in water resource availability. For these reasons, the Committee’s Water Resources Panel gave SMAP the highest mission priority within its field of interest.
Jim Sponnick,Vice President, Atlas and Delta Programs wrote;
The ULA team is proud to be the launch provider for NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission. One of four first-tier missions recommended by the National Research Council’s Committee on Earth Science and Applications from Space, SMAP will provide global, high-resolution mapping of soil moisture and its freeze/thaw state to link terrestrial water, energy, and carbon-cycle processes, and to extend capabilities of weather and climate prediction models.
The SMAP mission is managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) within NASA’s Earth Systematic Mission (ESM) Program. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) built the spacecraft and is assigned responsibility for the overall success of the SMAP project. NASA’s Launch Services Program at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida is responsible for launch management.
The ULA team is focused on attaining Perfect Product Delivery for the SMAP mission, which includes a relentless focus on mission success (the perfect product) and also excellence and continuous improvement in meeting all of the needs of our customers (the perfect delivery).
