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When the last issue of this newsletter appeared approximately a year ago, development of the GPM Core Spacecraft was to be an in-house effort at Goddard Spaceflight Center (GSFC). Since that publication, NASA issued certain budgetary challenges to the GPM mission, which the project needs to address over the next couple of years. In response, the GPM management team decided to examine alternative ways to develop the Core Spacecraft, in an effort to simultaneously decrease GPM budget needs and minimize delay of the launch date. After many months of investigation, the management team opted to procure the Core Spacecraft from GSFC's Rapid Spacecraft Development Office (RSDO) Rapid II catalog. (Click here to view an article discussing the particulars of this new approach.) An RSDO procurement presents a different set of challenges than an in-house development effort, and as such, requires a staff with a different skill set. As a result, GPM is experiencing numerous project staff changes at this time. The new development approach will also enable GPM to prevent the launch of the Core Spacecraft from slipping to a significantly later date. As of this writing, the Launch Readiness Date (LRD) for the Core Spacecraft has not been set, and NASA Headquarters and the Project continue to examine ways to keep the launch in 2010. We hope to report the specific launch date by our next newsletter. A constant in the GPM environment continues to be our relationship with JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. JAXA commitment to provide the Ku-band Precipitation Radar (Ku-PR) and Ka-band Precipitation Radar (Ka-PR) instruments remains strong, and they are working with us to synchronize their development efforts with the new GPM schedule. Our team will undoubtedly face many challenges ahead, but we are prepared to tackle them and move towards a successful implementation of the GPM mission. By John Durning GPM Project Formulation Manager |