The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released its fiscal 2012 budget request to US Congress, seeking $1.07bn for funding the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS).
The budget request, if approved, would help reduce the projected 12-14-month delay in production of the first two weather satellites originally scheduled for launch in 2014 and 2018.
NOAA chief financial officer Maureen Wylie said the requested funding was required to compensate for the delay in the acquisition.
“We continue to articulate a need for that. If additional money is provided in 2011, some of the delay could be eliminated,” she added.
The JPSS satellite, which Nasa was directed to build, is a next-generation polar-orbiting satellite that will provide 98% of the information for safe and accurate forecasts, according to Space News.
The NOAA 2012 budget proposal of $5.5bn includes $53m to support the Jason-3 satellite, $34m for the geostationary orbiting environmental satellite (GOES)-N and $617.4m to support GOES-R and GOES-S.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalDataThe budget has also proposed $11.3m to support the launch of 12 satellites with the Taiwan National Space Organisation and $47.3m to refurbish the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite to provide warning of geomagnetic storms.
