NASA TEAMS UP WITH OUR AERONAUTICAL SPACE ALLIES FOR LAUNCH OF JASON-3;

On Sunday January 17, 2016 The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in partnership with the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) along with the French space agency CNES, and the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites teamed together for the launch of JASON-3

(Image Courtesy of NASA)

Jason-3 is a satellite mission with NASA participation that will continue a nearly quarter-century record of tracking the global rising of our planets sea levels, Jason-3 which lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Sunday at 10:42 a.m. PST (1:42 p.m. EST) aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

NASA’s ground controllers who spend countless amounts of hours a day to monitor all of NASA’s missions had successfully acquired the spacecraft’s signals. Sources at NASA told Sixth Gate Entertainment that the initial telemetry reports showed the satellite was in good health and Jason-3 entered orbit about 15 miles (25 kilometers) below Jason-2.

According to NASA, Minutes after Jason-3 separated from the rocket’s second stage, the spacecraft unfolded its twin sets of solar arrays. Sources continued to tell us that “the new spacecraft will gradually raise itself into the same 830-mile (1,336-kilometer) orbit and position itself to follow Jason-2’s ground track by orbiting just a couple of minutes behind Jason-2; Since the launch of Jason-2 back in, 2008, the mission has been a success and has been providing our scientist and space professionals with much needed information to study the earths oceanic behaviors which are vital to man-kind and the way our planet is shaping along with how the human-caused global warming will affect the world around us and the role it plays in shaping our planet’s future. The two spacecraft’s are designed to fly in formation, making nearly simultaneous measurements for about six months to allow scientists to precisely calibrate Jason-3’s instruments.

Sources tell us that Jason-3 is not yet set to begin its full science operations until after a six-month checkout phase, From low-Earth orbit, Once Jason-3 has successfully passed the “Check Out” phase Jason-3 than will precisely measure the height of 95 percent of the world’s ice-free ocean every 10 days. “Jason-3 is a prime example of how our nation leverages NASA’s expertise in space and scientific exploration to help address critical global challenges in collaboration with NOAA and our international partners,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The measurements from Jason-3 will advance our efforts to understand Earth as an integrated system by increasing our knowledge of global sea level changes and the ocean’s roles in climate.”

In a statement released by Stephen Volz, assistant administrator for NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service stated that the mission is designed to measure the pulse of our changing planet by gathering environmental intelligence from the world’s oceans,” Volz detailed that the purpose of The mission is to improve our weather, climate and ocean forecasts, including helping NOAA’s National Weather Service and other global weather and environmental forecast agencies more accurately forecast the strength of tropical cyclones.

(Artist's concept of Jason-3. Credits: NOAA)

In a statement released to us by said Josh Willis, NASA project scientist for Jason-3 at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California stated that “As human-caused global warming drives sea levels higher and higher, we are literally reshaping the surface of our planet and “These missions will tell us how much and how fast.”

All of the data in which is transmitted back from Jason-3 is designed to be used for other scientific, commercial and operational applications, including and not limited to the modeling of deep-ocean waves; forecasts of surface waves for offshore operators; forecasts of tides and currents for commercial shipping and ship routing; coastal forecasts to respond to environmental challenges such as oil spills and harmful algal blooms; coastal modeling crucial for marine mammal and coral reef research; and forecasts of El Nino and La Nina events.

Everyone involved in this mission is very ecstatic that Jason-3 will allow even more frequent coverage of the global oceans and that the two spacecraft’s will double global data coverage which will provide our scientist with much further in-depth detail about our ocean and planet earth. Those involved in Jason-3’s mission cannot wait to see the progress and development unfold with-in the next few months to a year.

For NASA TV downlink and schedule information and streaming video, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

For extensive prelaunch, countdown and launch-day coverage, go to:

http://blogs.nasa.gov/Jason-3

For more information about the mission, visit:

http://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/jason-3/

http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/jason3/

(Excerpts Courtesy of NASA, NOAA, CNES and the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites)

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