SpaceX has received a $112.7 million firm-fixed-price contract from NASA to provide launch services for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s JPSS-4 mission.
NASA said Monday the mission is expected to lift off in 2027 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from a launch complex at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The JPSS-4 spacecraft is part of the Joint Polar Satellite System program, a NASA-NOAA partnership.
JPSS is a constellation of satellites designed to gather multispectral radiometry and other meteorologic, oceanographic and solar-geophysical data worldwide through remote sensing of ground, maritime and atmospheric properties. NOAA uses the collected data to predict changes in climate, weather, coasts and oceans, while NASA advances Earth science research using the instruments aboard the JPSS satellites.
Upon launch, JPSS-4 will carry the Earth Venture mission Libera instrument, which is meant to enable NASA to better understand trends in Earth’s energy imbalance and changing climate.
