Delta Awarded NOAA-N Weather Satellite Launch

NASA has exercised a launch service contract option for a Delta 2 7320 rocket to launch a U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Earth-observing weather satellite in early 2003. The NOAA-N satellite will be placed into a polar orbit aboard a Delta 2 expendable launch vehicle to be launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.  

Satellites NOAA-E through -N are called the TIROS ATN series or Advanced TIROS-N. The 2231.7 kg (4920 lbm) satellites were designed to operate in a near-polar, sun-synchronous orbit with an orbital period of about 102 minutes which produces 14.1 orbits per day.

The NOAA-N launch is part of an existing Delta 2 MED-LITE launch service contract that NASA awarded Boeing (then McDonnell Douglas) in 1996. NOAA-N is a cooperative effort between NOAA, NASA, the United Kingdom and France.

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