Jooster

It took me well over half an hour to travel the 4 miles from Liphook to Haslemere. Made it home just it time! The roads haven't been gritted at all.

It's been snowing quite hard here in Liphook for the last 15 mins - starting to lay now :-)

Launch has been scrubbed again for the second day running! More info here Launch rescheduled for Friday at 10:22 GMT - available to watch on NASA TV

Today's launch was aborted 20 minutes before lift-off due to a leak in the nitrogen purge valve on the launch vehicle. The launch is scheduled to take place at the same time on Thursday 5th February 10:22 GMT. However the weather forecast for California is not good for the next few days. The Delta II launch vehicle can only remain fuelled for 3 days apparently, after which it has to be de-fuelled and the the launch vehicle re-serviced (seals etc I think). Will keep you posted!

A better link for the launch is NASA TV

For anyone who is interested, the last in the current series of Polar Orbiting satellites operated by NOAA is scheduled for launch Wednesday 4th February at 10:22 UTC/GMT from Vandenburg Airforce Base in California. I was part of the software development team involved in the design, implementation, and test of the on-board software of the Microwave Humidity Sounder (MHS) which is one of the instruments onboard MetOp and NOAA meteorological satellites. MHS acquires measurements at various altitudes of atmospheric humidity, including rain, snow, hail and sleet, and temperature by measuring microwave radiation emitted from the surface of the Earth. Two MHS instruments are currently in orbit on the NOAA-18 and MetOp-1 satellites. More information on NOAA N-Prime is available here The launch will be broadcast on the web here www.ulalaunch.com

The yellow "barrier tape" in the bottom-right of the picture is about waist high - so that should give you some idea of the overall size. The main information from ESA can be found here. EUMETSAT, the provider of the MHS instrument to the satellite has information available on its home page here.

No problem :lol: Before you have a look below though, you made find this rather interesting - photos of the NOAA-N Prime satellite after it fell over when technicians removed 24 bolts from the 'turn-over' cart but didn't tell anyone Pictures available here Here's a photo of the Microwave Humidity Sounder (MHS) that I worked on: And here's photo of the complete satellite:

Just a quick update - the launch will be broadcast on the web by EUMETSAT. Click here if you want to watch it.

My first post, although I have been lurking for a while! For anyone who is interested, the first launch of a MetOp satellite is scheduled for Monday 17 July at 16:29 UTC (17:29 BST) from Baikonur in Kazakhstan. I have been involved in the design, implementation, and test of the on-board software of the Microwave Humidity Sounder (MHS) which is one of the instruments onboard MetOp and NOAA meteorological satellites. MHS acquires measurements at various altitudes of atmospheric humidity, including rain, snow, hail and sleet, and temperature by measuring microwave radiation emitted from the surface of the Earth. The first MHS instrument was launched last year, and is operating successfully onboard the NOAA satellite NOAA-18. The MetOp satellites will be operated in parntership with NOAA. More deatils of MetOp can be found here