With the restructure of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) in 2010, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has taken responsibility for providing operational environmental satellite data in the 1330 Local Time Ascending Node (LTAN) orbit. The Department of Defense (DoD) has responsibility for the 1730 LTAN orbit and the United States need for data from the 2130 LTAN orbit will be fulfilled through a partnership with the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). The NOAA program is called the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS). A pre-cursor mission, the NPOESS Preparatory Project, is currently on-orbit and will provide on-orbit testing and validation of sensors, algorithms, ground-based operations, and data processing systems that will be used in the operational JPSS mission. The first JPSS satellite is expected to be launched in 2017 with the last satellite in the JPSS series expected to continue operations until around 2037. The JPSS spacecraft will be launched into the afternoon orbit to provide significantly improved operational capabilities and benefits to satisfy critical civil and national security requirements for space-based, remotely sensed environmental data.

The presentation will provide an overview and programmatic status of the NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) and the newly formed Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) program.