JPSS-2 Atlas V Boattail Arrival & Offload, ISA at the HIF

Technicians remove the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V boattail from its shipping container following its arrival at the Horizontal Integration Facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on July 28, 2022, for NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Joint Polar Satellite System-2 (JPSS-2) mission. The boattail is the connecting piece of flight hardware that joins the rocket’s upper Centaur stage with the payload fairing, which will house the JPSS-2 satellite. JPSS-2 is the third satellite in the Joint Polar Satellite System series and will scan the Earth as it orbits from the North to the South Pole, crossing the equator 14 times a day. Operating from 512 miles above Earth, JPSS-2 will capture data to improve weather forecasts, in turn helping scientists predict and prepare for extreme weather events and climate change. Launching as a secondary payload aboard the Atlas V is NASA’s Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID) – a demonstration of a cross-cutting aeroshell, or heat shield, for atmospheric re-entry. Dedicated to the memory of Bernard Kutter, LOFTID could be used for crewed and large robotic missions to Mars. Liftoff of the ULA Atlas V rocket is scheduled for Nov. 1, 2022, from Vandenberg’s Space Launch Complex-3E.