PHOTO RELEASE NO: 98-51

NOAA-K SPACECRAFT READY FOR LAUNCH - This photo shot on April 8, 1998 shows the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)-K Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite being prepared for launch. The spacecraft had just completed all testing, and was awaiting transportation to the NASA processing facility (Building 1610) at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The spacecraft is scheduled to be launch May 13, 1998 on a Lockheed Martin Titan II launch vehicle.

The NOAA-K instruments will improve weather forecasting and monitor environmental events around the world. NOAA-K is the first in a series of five polar-orbiting satellites with improved imaging and sounding capabilities that will operate over the next twelve years. Like other NOAA satellites, NOAA-K will collect meteorological data and transmit the information to users around the world to enhance weather forecasting. In the United States, the data will be used primarily by the NOAA’s National Weather Service for its long-range weather and climate forecasts.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. is responsible for the construction, integration, launch and verification testing of the spacecraft, instruments and unique ground equipment. NASA turns operational control of the spacecraft over to NOAA after a comprehensive on-orbit verification period, which is expected to last approximately 60 days for NOAA-K. The spacecraft was built Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space under contract to Goddard.

Data from the NOAA spacecraft are used by researchers within NASA’s Earth Science Enterprise, a long-term research program designed to study Earth’s land, oceans, atmosphere, ice and life as a total integrated system. In addition these data are helping NASA scientists design instruments for follow-on missions.

PHOTO CREDIT: NASA, or National Aeronautics and Space Administration

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