Washington, DC -- A new enhanced weather satellite system built by three Colorado Companies will be launched by NASA tomorrow morning.  The NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) is capable of more narrowly targeting the path, patterns and intensity of blizzards, tornadoes and hurricanes. The NPP is the first step toward the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), the next generation weather satellite system.   U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (CO-07) issued the following statement praising the project and the more than 700 Coloradans who work on it, as a success for Colorado and our nation.

“The NPP satellite system launch team, including Ball Aerospace, Raytheon and the United Launch Alliance, demonstrates the innovation and leadership Colorado’s aerospace industry plays in supporting our economy and our nation's security.  I commend these individuals for their hard work, creativity and persistence in developing this system which will allow us to better predict and more efficiently plan for severe weather impacting our communities.  From tracking snow storms to tornadoes, hurricanes and floods, this weather satellite system will save our nation billions of dollars in emergency management costs, lives saved, and reduce economic impact of natural disasters.

“For this reason, I urge my colleagues in Congress to maintain needed funding for JPSS.  In addition, it creates high-tech jobs in Colorado which will help bring our economic recovery.”

Colorado companies are doing great work:

·         The Raytheon Company in Aurora designed and engineered the ground control segment which will download and distribute the NPP data to various stakeholders.

·         The United Launch Alliance of Greenwood Village built the Delta II rocket which delivered the NPP satellite into the correct orbit.

·         Ball Aerospace of Boulder built the NPP satellite and installed the many sophisticated instruments which will detect meteorological data better than any legacy satellite.

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