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EDWARDS AFB, Calif., 25 Oct. 2009. The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in Washington is starting to operate the high-endurance Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from Northrop Grumman Corp. in Los Angeles to monitor environmental conditions on Earth.
NASA is operating two Global Hawk UAVs for environmental Earth observation. The first Earth science mission will be the joint NASA-NOAA Global Hawk Pacific, or GloPac, consisting of six long-duration missions over the Pacific and Arctic regions scheduled to begin in early 2010.
Eleven NASA and NOAA scientific instruments integrated into one of NASA's Global Hawk aircraft will collect atmospheric data while flying through the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere to calibrate instruments and validate data from the AURA satellite -- one of NASA's 15 science satellites observing the Earth.
NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and Northrop Grumman are returning NASA's two Global Hawk aircraft to flight under a Space Act Agreement signed in 2008. The two aircraft were among the seven Global Hawk vehicles built and flown in the original advanced concept technology demonstration program sponsored by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va.
"This is the future," says Paul Newman, project scientist for the GloPac mission at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "We are taking the first steps into making scientific measurements with an unmanned system -- a hybrid of a satellite and an aircraft."
The initial flight of a Global Hawk for environmental science research was Friday at Edwards Air Force Base near Palmdale, Calif. The aircraft that flew Friday last took to the skies in May 2003.
The four-hour flight Friday included checkout of aircraft systems, including engine, flight controls, and communication. The flight also included demonstration of key has of a ground control segment that introduces Northrop Grumman's common mission management system architecture.
The two NASA Global Hawk aircraft were transferred to NASA Dryden by the U.S. Air Force in 2007. NASA announced plans to use them for missions supporting its Science Mission Directorate and the Earth science community that require high-altitude, long-endurance, long-distance airborne capability.
Northrop Grumman will share in use of the aircraft to conduct its own flight demonstrations for expanded markets, missions and airborne capabilities, including UAS integration into national airspace.
Global Hawk can fly at altitudes higher than 60,000 feet for more than 30 hours at a time. To date, Global Hawks have flown more than 33,000 hours. For more information contact Northrop Grumman online at www.northropgrumman.com.
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-- Posted by John Keller, jkeller@pennwell.com. www.milaero.com.
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