Ball Wins Contract to Build NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) Spacecraft

Ball Aerospace has been selected to build the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Preparatory Project (NPP) Spacecraft. The polar-orbiting spacecraft will collect and disseminate data on Earth's weather and atmosphere, oceans, land and space environment.

The NPP mission will provide NOAA and the DOD early access to data from the next generation of operational sensors to reduce the risks incurred during the NPOESS transition. NPP will permit the testing of the advanced ground operations facilities and validation of sensors and algorithms while the current systems are still in operation. NPOESS will provide nearly an order of magnitude more data than the current operational spacecraft. The spacecraft will also continue the series of measurements initiated with instruments aboard NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra and Aqua satellites.

The NPP spacecraft will be launched into a 824 km (445 nmi) sun-synchronous orbit in 2006. The spacecraft will be based on a modified Ball Commercial Platform (BCP) 2000 bus, with a 5 year design life. Launch of the first NPOESS spacecraft is expected in 2008.

Ball will be responsible for the design and fabrication of the NPP spacecraft bus, integration of the Government-furnished instruments, satellite-level testing, and on-orbit satellite check-out. The US$94 million delivery order (including spacecraft and all associated options) was awarded under NASA/GSFC's Rapid II Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Contract. The contract is for Core Spacecraft Systems.

The NPOESS merges Department of Defense and Department of Commerce meteorological satellite systems into a single national asset. NPOESS spacecraft will replace NOAA's Polar-Orbiting Environmental System (POES) and the DOD's Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) constellation. NPP will provide the first flight opportunity for three NPOESS instruments: the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS), the Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS), and the Visible-Infrared Imager Radiometer (VIIRS). All three instruments are currently under development.

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) multispectral instrument will acquire daily images the entire Earth at a spatial resolution of about 600 to 1,200 m in the region from about 0.4 micrometers to about 13 micrometers. The Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) interferometer will operate in the 3.5 to 16 micrometer region. Both of these sensors will be provided by the IPO. The AMSU and HSB measurement series will be extended by the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS), which will be provided by NASA. The frequencies covered by ATMS range from as low as 23 GHz to as 183 GHz.

NPP is a joint mission with contributions by NASA and NOAA's NPOESS Integrated Program Office (IPO). NASA is providing the NPP spacecraft, the launch vehicle and one of the three advanced sensors. The IPO will develop two new sensors, the spacecraft operations control center and ground processing systems.

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