WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

At Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, NASA and industry leaders speak to members of the media at a prelaunch news conference for the Joint Polar Satellite System-1, or JPSS-1. Participants, from left, are Tori McLendon of NASA Communications, Steve Volz, director of NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service, Greg Mandt, director of the NOAA Joint Polar Satellite System Program, Sandra Smalley, director of the Joint Agency Satellite Division at NASA Headquarters, Omar Baez, NASA launch director, Scott Messer, United Launch Alliance program manager for NASA missions, and U. S. Air Force Capt. Ross Malugani, launch weather officer at Vandenberg's 30th Space Wing. Built by Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colorado, JPSS is the first in a series four next-generation environmental satellites in a collaborative program between the NOAA and NASA. Liftoff atop a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket is scheduled to take place from Vandenberg's Space Launch Complex 2 at 1:47 a.m. PST (4:47 a.m. EST), on Nov. 14, 2017