Ball Aerospace completes integration of CrIS sensor on NPP weather satellite

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. has completed integration and performance testing of the Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) that will fly aboard NASA's National Preparatory Project (NPP) weather satellite.

CrIS, an advanced infrared sensor built by ITT, is part of the five-instrument suite that will allow the NPP satellite to collect and distribute remotely sensed land, ocean, and atmospheric data to the meteorological and global climate change communities. The advanced sensor suite will provide atmospheric and sea surface temperatures, humidity sounding, land and ocean biological productivity and cloud and aerosol properties.

CrIS arrived at Ball Aerospace on June 18 and integration was complete on July 14. The full satellite will now undergo environmental testing at Ball Aerospace prior to its scheduled launch in October 2011.

"Successful integration of CrIS brings us one step closer to launching the nation's critically needed, next weather satellite," said Cary Ludtke, vice president and general manager for Ball's Civil and Operational Space business unit. "This significant milestone demonstrates the flexibility of Ball's BCP platform to easily accommodate multiple instruments even when requirements change over the course of the program."

In addition to CrIS, the instruments integrated onto the NPP spacecraft bus include the Ball-built Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite; the Visible-Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder; and the Cloud and the Earth's Radiant Energy System.  Under contract to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Ball Aerospace employed a modified Ball Commercial Platform 2000 to accommodate NPP's five instruments.