Raytheon Readies Sensor for NASA-NOAA Joint Polar Satellite System

RTX business Raytheon is on track to deliver the final Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite instrumentation for the NASA-NOAA Joint Polar Satellite System after completing ahead of schedule its thermal vacuum tests for the final of the four JPSS VIIRS sensors in late 2023.

According to RTX, the completed J4 tests ensure sensor integration into the JPSS satellite in 2024. The tooling is vital to the JPSS program for the global environmental data on visible and infrared wavelengths that it collects across land, ocean and atmosphere, RTX said Monday.

The VIIRS instruments provide the JPSS with 22 bands for generating imagery used for monitoring agriculture, fire and air quality, as well as data for scientific processes, including carbon modeling and flood and sea ice mapping. Since 2010, Raytheon has supplied JPSS with four VIIRS instruments.

Sandy Brown, Raytheon’s space systems president, described the recent J4 test as “the most successful and efficient cycle in the program’s history” and credited it to a collaboration with NASA that enabled a “seamless test execution.”