WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

In the SpaceX Payload Processing Facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, scientists and engineers who helped prepare the Jason-3 satellite for launch pose for a group photograph prior to the spacecraft begin encapsulated in its payload fairing. Once the encapsulating is complete, Jason-3 will be mated to a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at Vandenberg's Space Launch Complex 4. Built by Thales Alenia of France, Jason-3 will measure the topography of the ocean surface for a four-agency international partnership consisting of NOAA, NASA, Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, France’s space agency, and the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites.