Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) 

Center Assets: Located in Greenbelt, MD, GSFC employs over 3,250 civil servants, consisting 

mainly of scientists, engineers and technologists that build spacecraft, instruments and new 

technology to study the Earth, the sun, our solar system, and the universe. Center capabilities 

that will be tapped in the President’s new program include satellite servicing; modeling, 

assessment and computing activities; and developing remote sensing instrumentation. Specific 

new activities include the following. 

Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS): This program is a restructuring of National Polar-orbiting 

Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) to ensure the successful completion of a 

satellite system that is of national importance to civil and military weather-forecasting, stormtracking, and climate-monitoring. NOAA and NASA will develop the JPSS on the most rapid 

practicable schedule without reducing system capabilities. NASA’s role in the restructured 

program will be modeled after the procurement structure of past successful programs such as 

POES, and GOES. NASA and NOAA have had a long and effective partnership and work is 

proceeding rapidly with NOAA to establish a JPSS program at GSFC. 

Climate Initiative: The budget enables significant expansion of, and launch date acceleration for, 

a suite of NASA-developed Earth observing satellite missions, each of which are overseen by 

GSFC’s Earth Systematic Missions Program Office. Their data advances science, underpins 

policy, and expands societal benefits through a wide variety of applications. 

 ICESat-2 is a Tier-1 Decadal Survey mission being developed for a launch in late 

calendar year 2015. It will continue the time series of precision ice topography 

measurements initiated by ICESat. The science focus areas served by ICESat-2 include 

climate variability and change, Earth surface and interior, and water and energy cycles. 

 CLARREO is a Tier-1 Decadal Survey mission, designed to make precision, stable 

measurements to enable detection of long-term changes in the climate system, and its 

radiation-related feedback mechanisms. The mission is led by LaRC, with GSFC 

participation, and is being developed with other partner organizations. The President’s 

Highlights:

 Joint Polar Satellite System:  New NASA‐NOAA partnership to procure several of the nation’s

polar orbiting weather satellites.  

 Decadal Survey Tier 1 Missions:  The FY 2011 President’s Budget enables all four of the Tier 1

missions recommended by the National Research Council.  GSFC will lead ICESat‐2, and

participates in portions of both CLARREO and DESDynI.  GSFC also manages the Earth Systematic

Missions Program, which contains the Decadal Survey missions.
FY 2011 budget provides for accelerated development and launch by CY 2017 of the first 

of two CLARREO spacecraft.

 DESDynI (Deformation, Ecosystem Structure and Dynamics of Ice) is a project jointly 

managed with JPL that will launch by 2017. The global observations of surface 

deformation have several scientific goals, including advances in earthquake science that 

benefits the health and safety of the public. There are two components, DESDynI 

Radar+Lidar (two spacecraft sharing a single launch). GSFC’s responsibility for this 

mission is with development of the Lidar spacecraft.