NASA - NASA Selects Launch Services for ICESat-2 Mission

ICESat-2

The Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) is the 2nd-generation of the orbiting laser altimeter ICESat scheduled for launch in early 2016.

Science Objectives

• Quantifying polar ice-sheet contributions to current and recent sea-level change and the linkages to climate conditions.
• Quantifying regional signatures of ice-sheet changes to assess mechanisms driving those changes and improve predictive ice sheet models.
• Estimating sea-ice thickness to examine ice/ocean/atmosphere exchanges of energy, mass and moisture.
• Measuring vegetation canopy height as a basis for estimating large-scale biomass and biomass change.
• Enhancing the utility of other Earth observation systems through supporting measurements.

Design

In contrast to the ICESat design, ICESat-2 will use a micro-pulse multi-beam approach. This provides dense cross-track sampling to resolve surface slope on an orbit basis.

The sensor will have a high pulse repetition rate of 10 kHz (exact number still TBD) which generates dense along-track sampling of about 70 cm.

This concept has advantages over ICESat of improved elevation estimates over high slope areas and very rough (e.g. crevassed) areas and improved lead detection for sea ice freeboard estimates.

NASA Selects Launch Services for ICESat-2 Mission

 

 

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA's Launch Services Program at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida has selected United Launch Services, LLC of Englewood, Colo., to provide Delta II launch services for the Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat)-2 mission, currently scheduled for July 2016.

A firm fixed-price launch service task order has been awarded under the indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity NASA Launch Services (NLS) II contract. NASA's total cost to launch ICESat-2 is $96.6 million, including payload processing, integrated services, telemetry, reimbursables and other launch support requirements.

The Delta II rocket will place the ICESat-2 spacecraft into a near-circular Earth polar orbit following liftoff from Space Launch Complex-2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. ICESat-2 is a continuation of the global time series of precision ice topography measurements initiated by the first ICESat mission. ICESat-2 will measure changes in the elevation of the polar ice sheets to understand their contribution to current and future sea-level rise. It also will characterize polar-sea ice thicknesses and global vegetation heights to understand their connections to the Earth system.

Subcontractors performing work for United Launch Services include Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne of Canoga Park, Calif., Alliant Techsystems, Inc of Magna, Utah and Aerojet of Sacramento, Calif. United Launch Services' United Launch Alliance provides the Delta II and launch services.

NASA's Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center is responsible for management of the ICESat-2 launch service acquisition and implementation.

For more information about the ICESat-2 mission, visit:

http://icesat.gsfc.nasa.gov/icesat2/

For more information about NASA's Launch Services Program, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/launchingrockets/

For more information about NASA programs and missions, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

 NASA

Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui

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