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At Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, agency and industry leaders spoke to members of the news media as the Jason-3 satellite and the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket were being prepared for launch. Pictured are Jim Silva, Jason-3 program manager for NOAA; Sandra Smalley, director of the Science Mission Directorate Joint Agency Satellite Division at NASA Headquarters; and Tim Dunn, NASA launch manager at Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

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