JPSS-2 Boat Tail Transport and Mate

Inside the Vertical Integration Facility (VIF) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, technicians secure the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V boattail onto the rocket’s Centaur upper stage on Oct. 4, 2022, for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) and NASA’s Joint Polar Satellite System-2 (JPSS-2) mission. The boattail is the connecting piece of flight hardware that joins that Atlas V upper stage with the payload fairing – the protective casing surrounding the JPSS-2 satellite. Once the payload fairing arrives at the VIF, teams will lower it onto the boattail to complete the Atlas V stack. 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 to JPSS-2 is NASA’s Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID), dedicated to the memory of Bernard Kutter. LOFTID is a technology demonstration of an inflatable heat shield that could one day help land humans on Mars. Liftoff is targeted for 2:25 a.m. Pacific time (5:25 a.m. Eastern time) on Nov. 1, 2022, from Vandenberg’s Space Launch Complex-3E.