WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

The Jason-3 satellite is lifted from its shipping container in the Payload Processing Facility at Space Launch Complex-4 East at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The spacecraft arrived aboard a Boeing 747 transport aircraft on June 18, 2015. Built at Thales Alenia Space in France, Jason-3 is scheduled to lift off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Aug. 8, 2015. NASA will launch the satellite for NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the French space agency -- National Centre for Space Studies, and EUMETSAT, the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites. Data from Jason-3 will provide information about oceans that forecasters need to better predict severe weather and devastating hurricanes before they arrive onshore.