Why Space Matters: GEO Satellite operations, Part 3–Revolution Earth

“Endless Distance, Wildlife and Stars, Blanket the Night…” The last lesson was about Field of View (FOV) and Field of Regard (FOR). It was intended to help with understanding the next few lessons regarding satellites in geosynchronous orbit (GEO). All mentions of GEO on this blog, unless otherwise stated, refer to a particular type of […]

NASA Earth Image pictures

Wired just posted these pictures to their site. These are apparently from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) satellites and International Space Station astronauts. So you can see images like the one below: Unlike the DigitalGlobe ones, you can only look at these pictures, not vote on which one you like. But they’re interesting […]

Broken American Space Policy exclamation point…

I wrote a longer than anticipated series about the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA–and darn it, I just noticed it’s Oceanic and not Oceanographic) problems in getting just one satellite up into space. The NOAA’s problems are so bad, they had to have an Independent Review Team get into their business, note the problems, […]

NOAA’s low hanging problem–Part 6

You learned from the previous post the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration invited the Independent Review Team (IRT) to find issues in their satellite programs, like the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), which were causing program slowdowns and costing more money. The IRT found five different concerns: Oversight and decision process, governance, JPSS Gap, programs, […]

NOAA’s low hanging problem–Part 4

Backstory The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) requested an Independent Review Team (IRT) look at NOAA satellite programs for possible problems. The IRT came back with issues and recommendations in two reports: one in 2012 and one in 2013. Within the report, the IRT pushed forward the possibility of no sun-synchronous LEO NOAA satellites […]