Missions

The GPM Core Observatory has left NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and embarked upon its long journey to Japan where it will launch in early 2014. Science writer Ellen Gray and producer Michael Starobin are travelling along with the spacecraft and documenting its trip with photos, videos, and blog posts. Keep checking this page to stay updated on GPM's journey to launch. " GPM in Japan, the Road to Launch" Blog Posts GPM Doing Well, Time to Color in the Eyes - March 2nd, 2014 Safe Journey, GPM! - February 27th, 2014 Clear Skies for GPM's Launch - February 26th, 2014 Blessings for a Safe and...

For the past three years, the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory has gone from components and assembly drawings to a fully functioning satellite at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The satellite has now arrived in Japan, where it will lift off in early 2014. The journey to the launch pad has been a long and painstaking process. It began with the most basic assembly of the satellite's frame and electrical system, continued through the integration of its two science instruments, and has now culminated in the completion of a dizzying array of environmental...

An international satellite that will set a new standard for global precipitation measurements from space has completed a 7,300-mile journey from the United States to Japan, where it now will undergo launch preparations. A U.S. Air Force C-5 transport aircraft carrying the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory landed at Kitakyushu Airport, about 600 miles southwest of Tokyo, at approximately 10:30 p.m. EST Saturday, Nov. 23. A U.S. Air Force C-5 transport aircraft carrying the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory landed at Kitakyushu Airport in Japan at...

Photo of Daniel Alvarado Name: Daniel E. Alvarado Varela Title: Mechanical Engineer Formal Job Classification: Aerospace Engineer Organization: Code 543, Mechanical Engineering Branch, Engineering Directorate Mechanical engineer Daniel Alvarado’s newest travel companion will be the 7,000-pound GPM satellite, which he will escort from Maryland to Tanegashima, Japan. What do you do and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard? How do you help support Goddard’s mission? Although officially I am an aerospace engineer, my education is in mechanical engineering. I work on the Global...

By Kasha Patel, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Original www.nasa.gov Feature (published 7/1/13) NASA successfully completed two pre-vibration solar array deployment tests of the Global Precipitation Measurement satellite on June 6 and June 15, 2013. This video montage shows scenes from the test deployments of both GPM Core satellite solar arrays in a clean room at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., in June 2013. Video Credit: NASA Goddard “Cross your fingers. Cross your toes,” said Art Azarbarzin, GPM project manager, as he watched engineers take their places around the...

By Ellen Gray, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Original www.nasa.gov Feature (published 4/12/13) This video, "Our Wet Wide World", provides an overview of the Global Precipitation Measurement Mission and its goals. Video Credit: Ryan Fitzgibbons As anyone who has ever been caught in a sudden and unexpected downpour knows, gaps still exist in our knowledge about the behavior and movement of precipitation, clouds and storms. An upcoming satellite mission from NASA and the Japanese Space Agency aims to fill in those gaps both in coverage and in scientists' understanding of precipitation. The...

By Ellen Gray , NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Original www.nasa.gov Article (published 11/27/12) When it rains it pours, goes the saying, and for the last 15 years, the data on tropical rainfall have poured in. NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) was launched on Nov. 27, 1997, and for the last decade and a half has enabled precipitation science that has had far reaching applications across the globe. TRMM Project Scientist Scott Braun looks back at the legacy of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission and a few of the major scientific milestones the satellite has helped...

By Ellen Gray , NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Original www.nasa.gov Article (published 10/17/12) NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory satellite went through its first complete comprehensive performance test (CPT), beginning on Oct. 4, 2012 at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The testing ran twenty-four hours, seven days a week and lasted ten days as the entire spacecraft was put through its paces. "This is the first time we've gotten to see the observatory all put together, running the way it's supposed to be running in flight," said CPT Test...

The electrical integration of the Global Precipitation Measurement Microwave Imager (GMI) instrument onto the GPM Core Observatory was successfully completed in April 2012. Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. Boulder, Colo. built the GMI, which arrived at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. in early March and after post shipment processing it was handed over to NASA. The GMI is one of the key instruments for the GPM Core Observatory. This instrument is a passive radiometer with 13 channels covering frequencies from 10 to 183 GHz. In May, 2012, the Dual-frequency...

By Ellen Gray, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Original www.nasa.gov Press Release (published 4/3/12) On March 30, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) officially handed off a new satellite instrument to NASA at Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) was designed and built by JAXA and Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT). JAXA DPR Project Manager Masahiro Kojima (seated left) formally signed over the DPR to GPM Project Manager Art Azarbarzin (seated right). Behind from left to right: Minoru...