NOAA

Ball and Raytheon win weather instrument study contracts
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. and Raytheon Intelligence & Space will begin developing technologies for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s next generation of weather satellites under contracts announced May 17.

Tomorrow.io on track for 2024 weather constellation
Adding microwave sounders to its constellation will not push back the timeline for startup Tomorrow.io to begin gathering weather data via satellite.

NOAA seeks input on new satellite sensors and digital twin
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is holding a series of meetings next week with potential government, academic and industry partners to discuss the agency’s plan to evaluate emerging satellite and ground architecture technologies.

Omnibus bill cuts funding for future weather satellites
Appropriators cut funding for a new generation of weather satellites while increasing funding for the Office of Space Commerce for fiscal year 2022.

Atlas 5 launches GOES-T weather satellite
An Atlas 5 successfully launched the latest in a series of geostationary weather satellites March 1, exactly four years after the launch of the satellite it is replacing.


NOAA seeking information on commercial space situational awareness data
The Commerce Department is seeking information on commercial sources of space situational awareness (SSA) data to augment its own space traffic management capabilities.

Office of Space Commerce rolls out prototype space catalog for traffic management
Commerce Department officials on Feb. 11 revealed a prototype for a space catalog and traffic software platform that would provide basic situational awareness and traffic management services.


NOAA to move new weather satellite quickly into position
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will move its next Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) into position over the Western United States soon after launch to speed up data delivery to the National Weather Service.

NOAA seeks continuity of space weather observations
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is looking ahead to a future generation of space weather instruments.

Four NASA Earth Science missions to launch in 2022
NASA’s Earth Science Division is preparing to launch four satellite missions in 2022 to provide observations of weather conditions, mineral dust, oceans and surface water.

Albedo wins license to sell 10-centimeter imagery
Earth observation startup Albedo was granted a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration license to sell commercial optical imagery with a resolution of 10 centimeters per pixel.

Senate appropriators frustrated with lack of progress on civil space traffic management
Senate appropriators, frustrated with the lack of progress by the Commerce Department on space traffic management, are threatening to withhold other funding until it gets detailed plans from the agency.

Ball Aerospace and L3Harris win weather instrument study contracts
NASA awarded contracts to Ball Aerospace & Technologies and L3Harris Technologies to study instruments for Geostationary and Extended Observations (GeoXO), the agency’s next generation of geostationary satellites.

House committee presses NOAA on commercial weather data and space traffic management
Members of the House Science Committee asked the new administrator of NOAA to make more use of commercial satellite data and take action on space traffic management.

House budget reconciliation package funds NASA infrastructure but not lunar lander work
The House Science Committee will mark up its portion of a multitrillion-dollar spending bill this week that includes several billion dollars for NASA infrastructure but nothing for lunar lander development.

Op-ed | The costs of extreme weather and climate are soaring. Commercial space data should be a bigger part of the solution
There is no one magic bullet to improving forecasts and reining in the costs of extreme weather and climate. To truly tap into the powerful innovation of the private sector, we must think beyond a few targeted, yet piecemeal commercial data buys.

GeoOptics to launch next-generation Earth science constellation
GeoOptics is planning to deploy of constellation of dozens of smallsats over the next five years to collect weather and other Earth science data for government and commercial customers.

Report calls on government agencies to better coordinate spectrum
An interagency dispute about the use of a spectrum band for weather forecasting versus terrestrial wireless services illustrates the need for the federal government to reform its spectrum management processes, a report concluded.