| Cynthia O’Carroll Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Md. 20771 (Phone: 301-286-6943) Pat Viets |
May 28, 1998 |
RELEASE NO: 98-73
NOAA-15 (NOAA-K) STATUS REPORT #2
Operations continue to go well as NASA controllers perform the on-orbit checkout of the NOAA-15 spacecraft. NOAA-K was launched on May 13, 1998 aboard a Titan II launch vehicle and injected into a near perfect orbit. NOAA-K was renamed NOAA-15 upon reaching orbit for ease of tracking when it is turned over to NOAA in 60 days.
Spacecraft on orbit activities began immediately at the NOAA Satellite Operations Control Center in Suitland, Md. The spacecraft is operating successfully. Most instruments are in various phases of activation and evaluation as part of the 60-day On-Orbit Verification Plan developed by the POES Project. After initial turn on of the instruments, various modes will be exercised to evaluate and document performance of the spacecraft.
Subsystem evaluation and instrument activation began with the first command contact at NOAA’s Fairbanks, Alaska data acquisition site. The first phase of evaluation, Launch and Early Orbit , was completed on May 20 with a performance assessment from the Lockheed Martin East Windsor (NJ) Operations subsystem engineers. The major satellite subsystems including power, thermal, command and control, data handling, communications, reaction control and flight software are performing normally with the exception of one antenna.
Spacecraft controllers report that the VHF Realtime Antenna (VRA) is apparently not fully deployed. This antenna is used to transmit the Automatic Picture Transmission (APT) signal containing two channels of low resolution Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer imagery data to the ground. Many users report receiving good data at certain look angles to the spacecraft, but controllers say that much of the data is noisy. The Polar Operational Environmental Satellite Project at the Goddard Space Flight Center (Greenbelt, Md.) and Lockheed Martin are evaluating data and working to develop an action plan for possible resolution of the problem.
While the APT imagery is not required for NOAA operational weather forecasting, it remains an important part of the NOAA polar program. Global governmental and educational users continue to obtain good imagery from the APT channels onboard NOAA-12 and NOAA-14. The primary realtime imagery downlink, High Resolution Picture Transmission, used by NOAA, is functioning very well.
NOAA-15 will collect meteorological and oceanographic data and transmit this information to users around the world to enhance weather and climate forecasting. In the United States, the data will be used primarily by NOAA’s National Weather Service for its multi-range weather and climate forecasts.
The next NOAA-15 status report will be issued in about two weeks.
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