NASA's Cloudsat Spacecraft Arrives at Launch Site

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Alan Buis (CloudSat) (818) 354-0474
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Chris Rink (Calipso) (757) 864-6786
Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.

Erica Hupp/Dolores Beasley (202) 358-1237/1753
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

News Release: 2005-076 May 16, 2005

NASA's Cloudsat Spacecraft Arrives at Launch Site

A NASA spacecraft designed to reveal the inner secrets of
Earth's clouds has arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.,
to begin final launch preparations.

The CloudSat spacecraft arrived at Vandenberg from Ball
Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo., on May 2.
Following final tests, it will be integrated onto a Boeing
Delta II launch vehicle, sharing its ride into orbit later
this year with another NASA spacecraft, the Cloud-Aerosol
Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation, or
Calipso.

CloudSat and Calipso will give us new, 3-D perspectives on
Earth's clouds and aerosols that will answer questions about
how they form, evolve and affect our weather, climate, water
supply and air quality.

CloudSat and Calipso employ revolutionary measurement
technologies that will probe Earth's atmosphere as never
before. Each spacecraft transmits pulses of electromagnetic
energy and measures the portion scattered back to the
instruments. CloudSat's Cloud Profiling Radar is more
than 1,000 times more sensitive than typical weather radar.
Calipso's polarization lidar instrument can tell the
difference between ice and water in clouds, and between liquid
and solid aerosol particles. By distinguishing aerosols from
ice particles based on combined Calipso and CloudSat data, we
will gain new insight into dynamics and properties of clouds and
their influence on Earth's radiation balance.

The satellites will be launched into a 705-kilometer (438-mile)
circular, Sun-synchronous polar orbit, where they will fly just
15 seconds apart as part of NASA's "A-Train" constellation of
three other Earth Observing System satellites.

The usefulness of data from CloudSat, Calipso and the other
satellites of the A-train will be much greater when combined.
The data will help scientists better understand how sources of
local pollution affect air quality, and will improve weather
forecasting and climate prediction.

The other three Earth Observing System satellites that make up
NASA's A-Train are: NASA's Aqua spacecraft; NASA's Aura spacecraft;
and the French Space Agency's (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales)
Polarization and Anisotropy of Reflectances for Atmospheric
Sciences coupled with Observations from a Lidar, or Parasol,
spacecraft.

CloudSat is an international and interagency mission with project
management by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
The CloudSat radar instrument was developed at JPL with hardware
contributions from the Canadian Space Agency. Colorado State
University provides scientific leadership and science data
processing. Other contributions include the U.S. Air Force
(satellite on-orbit operations control) and the U.S. Department
of Energy (scientific contributions). Ball Aerospace & Technologies
Corp. designed and built the spacecraft.

Calipso is being developed through collaboration between NASA and
France's Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales. NASA's Langley
Research Center, Hampton, Va., is leading the Calipso mission
and is providing overall project management, systems engineering,
payload mission operations, and validation, processing and
archiving of data. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt,
Md., is providing project management and system engineering support,
and overall program management for the mission. Centre National
d'Etudes Spatiales is providing a Proteus spacecraft developed by
Alcatel, the imaging infrared radiometer, payload-to-spacecraft
integration, and spacecraft mission operations. The Institut Perre
Simon Laplace in Paris, France, is providing the imaging infrared
radiometer science oversight, data validation and archiving.
Hampton University, Hampton, Va., is providing scientific
contributions and managing the outreach program. Ball Aerospace &
Technologies Corp. developed the lidar and on-board visible camera.

For more information on CloudSat and Calipso on the Internet, please
visit:

http://cloudsat.atmos.colostate.edu/
and
http://www-calipso.larc.nasa.gov/ .

JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena.

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