The Government Accountability Office says the problems with NPOESS could produce at least a three-year gap in vital weather coverage. Such a gap, asserts Boehlert, puts American lives at risk. NOAA’s answer: They might delay launch of the last legacy satellite; if it fails, well, the agency is looking into that. Sega says that DOD would employ spaceborne and airborne platforms to provide weather data and, possibly, a service life extension for current DMSP satellites.
The Air Force will begin its 71st annual Operation Christmas Drop on Dec. 4. The weeklong exercise is a yearly tradition that delivers supplies such as food, fishing equipment, school books, and clothes to remote islands in the Pacific. It is the longest-running Department of Defense humanitarian mission.