JPSS 1. Photo: Ball Aerospace

[Via Satellite 02-05-2014] Ball Aerospace & Technologies has completed the SpaceWire Interoperability Test for the Joint Polar Satellite System 1 (JPSS 1) satellite and has begun spacecraft bus integration. The spacecraft will be powered up this month to prepare for its 2017 launch.

JPSS 1 will provide continuity of severe weather predictions currently provided by Ball’s Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite, which was launched in 2011. JPSS 1 will provide the National Weather Service critical data to forecast severe weather events up to 10 days in advance, which will help to provide warnings to the public. This polar-orbiting satellite will ensure that the U.S. provides stable and continued access to weather information.

SpaceWire is a spacecraft high-speed communications data-handling network that replaced the IEEE 1394 network on Suomi NPP. It helps reduce system integration costs and promotes compatibility between spacecraft data handling equipment and the onboard Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) and the Cross-track Infrared Sounder instruments (CrIS).

The JPSS 1test was a risk reduction activity to provide early verification of the network’s architecture design and implementation.

The SpaceWire Inter-operability Test was conducted under both normal and fault conditions, and proved the functionality of links using flight-like engineering models of key JPSS 1 spacecraft bus subsystems and engineering models for VIIRS and CrIS. The additional JPSS 1 instruments include the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder, the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System, and the Ball-built Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS).

Ball, under contract with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, will design and build both the JPSS 1 satellite bus and the OMPS instrument, integrate all instruments, and perform testing and launch support.