Delta
to Launch ESSP 3 / CloudSat
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NASA exercised a
contract option with the Boeing Co., Huntington Beach, CA, for a
Delta 2/7240 vehicle to launch the ESSP 3/CloudSat mission. The
spacecraft are planned for launch on April 30, 2004.
This firm-fixed
price option is covered under the NASA Med-Lite contract awarded
to Boeing in 1996.  NASA's
total launch services budget for the ESSP 3/CloudSat mission is
valued at approximately $60 million. Seven options had already
been exercised before this one. One option remains available
through February 2003.
ESSP-3 (formerly
Picasso-CENA - the family of the painter Pablo Picasso opposed the
use of his name), the third mission of the NASA Earth System
Science Pathfinder (ESSP) program, will carry three instruments to
study clouds and chemicals in the Earth's atmosphere. The ESSP-3
satellite flies in formation with the Aqua spacecraft to provide a
comprehensive global dataset which will greatly improve our
ability to predict future climate change.
ESSP-3 is a
collaboration between NASA's Langley Research Center (LaRC),
Hampton, VA; the French space agency CNES, Paris; Hampton
University, Hampton, VA; the Institut Pierre Simon Laplace (IPSL),
Paris; and Ball Aerospace Corp., Boulder, CO.
CloudSat's trio
of satellites will be the first spacecraft to study clouds on a
global basis, contributing to better predictions of clouds and
their role in climate change. The CloudSat mission is a
partnership between Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO;
NASA; the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA; the Canadian
Space Agency, Saint-Hubert; the U.S. Air Force; the U.S.
Department of Energy; and Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.,
Boulder, CO.
NASA's
ESSP 3/CloudSat Program is managed by the Earth Science Enterprise
and NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder Program at NASA
Headquarters, Washington, D.C., and by the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory.
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