The continuing resolution (CR) signed yesterday by President Barack Obama to open the federal government through no later than Jan. 15 includes potential funding that may be apportioned up to the amount necessary to maintain planned launch schedules for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Joint Polar Satellite (JPSS) and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) weather systems.
NOAA spokesman John Leslie said yesterday in an email the administration is assessing the short and long-term impacts of the federal government shutdown to the development, and launch schedules, for all the spacecraft in its satellite acquisition portfolio, particularly GOES and JPSS. Leslie said NOAA’s current suite of operational geostationary and polar-orbiting satellites, which he called the backbone of forecasts from the administration’s National Weather Service (NWS), were not impacted by the shutdown, which started Oct. 1 and lasted 16 days.
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| The Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS). Photo: Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. |
A government official familiar with the programs said yesterday it could take several weeks for a team of experts from NOAA, NASA, the Pentagon, international partners and contractors to conduct an analysis and provide an assessment of the shutdown’s impact on costs and schedules. Lockheed Martin [LMT] is the prime contractor for GOES. NASA is a partner on both GOES and JPSS.
A congressional source said yesterday that this CR provision allows NOAA to spend at a higher rate, which will be determined in the final fiscal year 2014 omnibus, or all 12 spending bills in one bill, and that it was included in the original House CR. The source said both the House and Senate had increases in funding for these flagship weather satellites because both systems are in critical development phases and the rate change allows them to keep the development and launch schedules. The source said the Senate Appropriations Committee (SAC) hopes to enact an omnibus at the conclusion of the CR in January.
JPSS is next-generation polar-orbiting environmental satellites. The Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (SNPP), launched in 2011, was the first of three satellites that comprise the constellation to be launched. A second satellite, known as JPSS-1, is scheduled for launch no later than fiscal year 2017, according to NOAA. The third satellite, JPSS-2, is scheduled for launch availability in 2022. An experimental payload called TSI Calibration Transfer Experiment (TCTE) was supposed to be launched winter 2013. A NOAA spokesman deferred questions about TCTE to the Air Force, who did not respond to an inquiry by press time.
JPSS represents significant technological and scientific advances in environmental monitoring and will help advance weather, climate, environmental and oceanographic sciences, according to NOAA. Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. [BLL] is the prime contractor for JPSS-1 while Raytheon [RTN] serves as contractor for the ground system. A contractor for JPSS-2 has not been selected yet.
The next-generation GOES satellites, known as GOES-R, will result in more timely and accurate weather forecasts as well as detection and observations of meteorological phenomena. The first GOES-R satellite is scheduled for launch in 2015. Lockheed Martin [LMT] is the GOES-R prime contractor.