For Hurricane Forecasters, Jason-3 Can't Launch Soon Enough

Hurricane intensity is only one of the jobs performed by space-based altimeters like the one onboard Jason-3, a satellite built by prime contractor Thales Alenia Space that NOAA, Europe's Eumetsat meteorological satellite organization, NASA and the French space agency, CNES, were planning to launch July 22 until engineers detected contamination in one of four spacecraft thrusters. Jason-3 is now scheduled to launch in early August onboard a Space X Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base ...