Nation's Newest Advanced Weather Satellite Launched.

Business Editors

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 21, 2000

The NOAA-L spacecraft, a Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) satellite, was launched successfully this morning at 3:22 PDT from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Sunnyvale, Calif., built NOAA-L, and a Lockheed Martin-built Titan II space launch vehicle, provided under contract to the U.S. Air Force by Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver, Colo., carried the satellite into orbit.

"This team has been totally dedicated to providing NASA and NOAA with satellites to extend NOAA's ability to forecast the weather," said Al Lauer, director of Low Earth Orbit Meteorological Programs for Lockheed Martin Space Systems-Missiles & Space Operations in Sunnyvale, Calif. "NOAA-L is the first POES spacecraft launched in the fifth decade of this program, and the long-standing partnership with our NASA and NOAA customers is a source of genuine pride for Lockheed Martin."

"We are very proud to be a part of this important program for NASA, NOAA and the U.S. Air Force," said G. Thomas Marsh, president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Space Systems-Astronautics Operations, the company that builds the Titan II launch system. "Today's early morning liftoff marked the tenth consecutive successful Titan II launch and, more importantly, another successful mission for our customers."

NOAA-L is the latest model in four generations of POES satellites. All have been designed and built for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) by Lockheed Martin heritage companies since the first TIROS weather satellite launch in April 1960. Most of the spacecraft in the series have operated far longer than originally expected, earning them a reputation as the workhorse of the civil space Earth-imaging inventory.

Operating as a pair, two POES satellites orbit the planet in nearly north-south paths. As the Earth rotates, the entire globe, one swath at a time, rolls into view of the satellites' instruments. The instruments continually sense the entire depth of the atmosphere and report on the following weather generating factors:

-- Atmosphere Temperatures and Moisture Soundings

-- Sea-surface Temperatures

-- Land-surface Temperatures

-- Cloud Cover and Heights

-- Precipitable Moisture

-- Total Ozone

-- Clear Radiance

-- Incoming and Radiated Heat

Together these data comprise irreplaceable inputs to the numerical weather forecast model and are vital to medium and long-range forecasting. Separately or in combination, the data are utilized to produce sea-surface temperature maps, ice condition charts, snow cover analysis, vegetation maps and other forecasting and management tools.

Additionally, NOAA-L carries an enhanced complement of microwave instruments for the generation of temperature, moisture, surface, and hydrological products in cloudy regions where visible and infrared instruments have decreased capability. NOAA-L also carries search and rescue instruments that are used internationally for locating ships, aircraft, and people in distress. The use of satellites in search and rescue has been instrumental in saving more than 11,354 lives since the inception of the Search and Rescue Satellite-aided Tracking (SARSAT) system.

The NOAA-L satellite will operate in a circular, near-polar orbit of 470 nautical miles above the Earth with an inclination angle of 98.744 degrees to the equator. Its orbital period, which is the time it takes to complete one orbit of the Earth, will be approximately 102 minutes.

The NOAA-L nominal orbit is Sun-synchronous and rotates eastward about the Earth's polar axis 0.986 degrees each day, approximately the same rate and direction as the Earth's average daily rotation about the Sun. The rotation keeps the satellite in a constant position with reference to the Sun for constant scene illumination throughout the year.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., is responsible for the procurement, development, launch services, and verification testing of the spacecraft, instruments, and unique ground equipment. Following deployment of the spacecraft from the launch vehicle, Goddard is responsible for the mission operation phase leading to injection of the satellite into orbit and initial in-orbit satellite checkout and evaluation.

Following the launch and a comprehensive on-orbit verification period that lasts 45 days, NASA will turn operational control of the satellites over to NOAA. NOAA will operate the satellites from the Satellite Operations Control Center of the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service in Suitland, Md., along with the nation's other environmental satellites that it operates.

NOAA's environmental satellite system is composed of two types of satellites: geostationary operational environmental satellites (GOES) for national, regional, short-range warning and "now-casting"; and polar-orbiting environmental satellites (POES) for global, long-term forecasting and environmental monitoring. Both GOES and POES are necessary for providing a complete global weather monitoring system. Both also carry search and rescue instruments to relay signals from aviators and mariners in distress.

In addition, NOAA operates satellites in the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP), which are also polar-orbiting satellites. NOAA also manages the processing and distribution of the millions of bits of data and images the GOES and POES satellites produce each day.

On May 5, 1994, President Clinton made the landmark decision to merge the nation's military and civil polar-orbiting operational meteorological satellite systems into a single, national system capable of satisfying both civil and national security requirements for space-based remotely sensed environmental data. The new system is called the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System, or NPOESS. Convergence of the civil and military programs is the most significant change in U.S. operational remote sensing since the launch of the first weather satellite.

The first converged satellite is expected to be available for launch in the latter half of the decade, approximately 2009, depending on when the remaining POES and DMSP program satellite assets are exhausted.

Titan II intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) served as the vanguard of our nation's strategic deterrent for more than two decades. In the late 1960s, 10 Titan IIs also successfully launched astronauts as part of the Gemini program. When the Titan II ICBMs were decommissioned, the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles, Calif., contracted with Lockheed Martin to refurbish 14 for use as space launch vehicles. Today's launch was the tenth consecutive successful launch of a Titan II space launch vehicle.

Astronautics and Missiles & Space are two of the operating units of Lockheed Martin's Space Systems business area. Astronautics designs, develops, tests and manufactures a variety of advanced technology systems for space and defense. Chief products include space launch systems, planetary spacecraft and other space systems and ground systems. Missiles & Space is a leading supplier of satellites to military, civil government and commercial communications organizations around the world. These spacecraft have enhanced military and civilian communications; provided new, extensive and timely weather data; studied the Earth and space; and furnished new data for thousands of scientists studying our planet and the space around it.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global enterprise principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture and integration of advanced-technology systems, products and services. The Corporation's core businesses are systems integration, space, aeronautics, and technology services. Employing more than 140,000 people worldwide, Lockheed Martin had 1999 sales surpassing $25 billion.

For more information about Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Sunnyvale and Denver, see our websites at http://lmms.external.lmco.com and http://www.ast.lmco.com.

Note to Editors: High and low resolution images of the NOAA-L can be found at: http://lmms.external.lmco.com/photos/civil_space/noaa/noaa.html and an image of the Titan II launch can be found at: http://www.ast.lmco.com.