NPOESS

Polar Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite Systems

The National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) was a tri-agency program between DOD, NOAA, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to replace both DMSP and POES; started in 1997 and cancelled in 2010 due to escalating costs and schedule delays.

The NPOESS program was an effort to integrate the capabilities of the NOAA Polar-orbiting Environmental Satellite, the DoD DMSP, and NASA’s continuous climate data collection satellite into one satellite. Some of the NPOESS problems centered on technically maturing its large suite of very sophisticated sensors. This, coupled with many interagency management problems, killed the program.

For the past three decades, the United States has operated separate civil and military polar-orbiting environmental satellite systems which collect, process and distribute remotely- sensed meteorological, oceanographic, and space environmental data. The U.S. Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is responsible for the Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) program. Key aspects of the POES mission include collecting atmospheric data for weather forecasting, global climate research and emergency search and rescue purposes.

The U.S. Department of Defense is responsible for the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP). The mission of DMSP is to collect and distribute global visible and infrared cloud data and other specialized meteorological, oceanographic and solar geophysical data to provide a survivable capability in support of military operations.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), through its Earth Observing System (EOS) development efforts, provides new remote sensing and spacecraft technologies that could potentially improve satellite operational capabilities.

The National Performance Review, led by Vice President Gore, called for converging the two operational satellite programs as well as incorporating appropriate aspects of NASA's EOS in order to reduce duplication of effort and generate cost-savings. On May 5, 1994, President Clinton approved the convergence of the civil and military polar-orbiting satellite systems into a single operational program.

In August 2002 TRW won a $2.9 billion contract to build the nation's next-generation environmental-satellite system, dealing a blow to Lockheed Martin Corp., the longtime maker of such satellites. The initial contract called for TRW, along with Raytheon Co., to build two satellites and related systems. The companies would operate the new system through 2012. The contract could eventually total $4.5 billion, if the government exercised options for four replacement satellites as well as systems operation through 2019.

Goals and Principles

The goal of the converged program is to reduce the cost of acquiring and operating polar orbiting operational environmental satellites, while continuing to satisfy U.S. operational civil and national security requirements. As part of this goal, the operational program would incorporate appropriate aspects of NASA's Earth Observing System.

The converged system on-orbit architecture would consist of three low earth orbiting satellites. This is a reduction from the current four satellites (two civilian and two military). The orbits of the three satellites would evenly space throughout the day to provide sufficient data refresh. The nominal equatorial crossing times of the satellites would be 5:30, 9:30 and 1:30. This converged system can accommodate international cooperation, including the open distribution of environmental data.

The converged program would be conducted in accordance with the following principles:

1. operational environmental data from polar-orbiting satellites are important to the achievement of U.S. economic, national security, scientific, and foreign policy goals;

2. assured access to operational environmental data would be provided to meet civil and national security requirements and international obligations;

3. the United States would ensure its ability to selectively deny critical environmental data to an adversary during crisis or war yet ensure the use of such data by U.S. and Allied military forces. Such data would be made available to other users when it no longer has military utility; and

4. the implementing actions would be accommodated within the overall resource policy guidance of the President.

Implementing Actions

The Departments of Commerce and Defense and NASA created an Integrated Program Office (IPO) for the converged polar-orbiting operational satellite system by October 1, 1994. The IPO would be responsible for the management, acquisition, and operation of the converged system. The IPO would be under the direction of a System Program Director who would report to a triagency Executive Committee via the Department of Commerce's Under Secretary for Oceans and Atmosphere.

The Under Secretary-level Executive Committee would ensure that both civil and national security requirements are satisfied. The Executive Committee would also coordinate program plans, budgets, and policies and would ensure agency funding commitments are equitable and sustained.

The three agencies are developing a process for identifying, validating, and documenting requirements for the converged system. Those requirements would define the system baseline used to develop agency budgets.

The Department of Commerce, through NOAA, would have lead agency responsibility to the Executive Committee for the converged system. NOAA would have lead agency responsibility to support the IPO for satellite operations. NOAA would also have the lead for interfacing with national and international civil user communities, consistent with national security and foreign policy requirements.

The Department of Defense would have lead agency responsibility to support the IPO in major systems acquisitions. NASA would have lead agency responsibility to support the IPO in facilitating the development and insertion of new cost-effective technologies to meet operational requirements.

The United States would seek to implement the converged system in a manner that encourages cooperation with foreign governments and international organizations consistent with U.S. requirements. The United States' European partners have been invited to explore incorporating the European METOP (meteorological operational mission) polar satellite series into the converged system. This effort underscores the importance that the United States places on environmental satellite cooperation with our European partners. The METOP is a joint undertaking of the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), the European Space Agency (ESA), and their member states.

During the Program Definition and Risk Reduction Phase, The IPO awarded multiple contracts for each higher-risk sensor and/or suite of sensors, and for system studies. In 2002, the Secretary of Defense appointed the Secretary of the Air Force as the DoD Executive Agent for Space, and the IPO is now acquiring NPOESS under new DOD National Security Space Policy directives tailored for space programs. Following a Key Decision Point-C in August 2002, the IPO selected an integration contractor and the program entered into the Acquisition and Operations Phase. A key risk reduction activity is the NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP), which is a joint Integrated Program Office/NASA space flight of selected critical imaging and sounding sensor systems. In 2003, the IPO restructured the program in response to funding constraints. As part of their restructuring, the IPO delayed the Critical Design Review (CDR), NPP, and the first NPOESS launch by up to a year.

The Experiment Fails

The merger of the two programs proved to be an unsuccessful experiment. After a phase of competitive development, SMC issued a contract to TRW (acquired by Northrop Grumman) in 2002 to further develop, deploy, and operate NPOESS under the direction of the NPOESS Integrated Program Office (IPO). Unfortunately, the development program suffered a long period of cost increases and schedule delays.

Despite restructuring by DoD in 2006, the problems continued. A presidential task force formed to examine the problem in 2009 concluded that the IPO’s management structure was fundamentally flawed, and it recommended dividing NPOESS into civilian and military programs once again. NOAA began the development of a follow-on system known as the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), and DoD established the Defense Weather Satellite System (DWSS) in 2010 as the follow-on program for DMSP and the DoD replacement for NPOESS.

Nevertheless, Congress cancelled funding for DWSS for 2012, and the Air Force formally terminated design work on the new system in April 2012. Despite the cancellation, Congress provided funding to begin work on a new development program for a space-based military weather system in its appropriations for 2014. Fortunately, the long projected on-orbit lifetimes of Block 5D-3 satellites along with the two satellites not yet launched allowed a cautious approach to a new DoD weather system. One possibility under consideration was a concept known as disaggregation, which would involve placing various weather sensors on different satellites.