Since the 1960s, the United States has operated two separate operational polar-orbiting meteorological satellite systems: POES, managed by NESDIS of NOAA and DMSP, managed by DOD. The satellites obtain environmental data that are processed to provide graphical weather images and specialized weather products and are the predominant input to numerical weather prediction models. These images, products, and models are all used by weather forecasters, the military, and the public. Polar satellites also provide data used to monitor environmental phenomena, such as ozone depletion and drought conditions, as well as data sets that are used by researchers for a variety of studies, such as climate monitoring. Unlike geostationary satellites, which maintain a fixed position above the earth, polar-orbiting satellites constantly circle the earth in an almost north-south orbit, providing global coverage of conditions that affect the weather and climate. Each satellite makes about 14 orbits a day. As the earth rotates beneath it, each satellite views the entire earth’s surface twice a day. Today, there are two operational POES satellites and two operational DMSP satellites that are positioned so that they can observe the earth in early morning, mid morning, and early afternoon polar orbits. Together, they ensure that for any region of the earth, the data provided to users are generally no more than 6 hours old. Figure 1 illustrates the current operational polar satellite configuration. Besides the four operational satellites, six older satellites are in orbit that still collect some data and are available to provide some limited backup to the operational satellites should they degrade or fail. In the future, both NOAA and DOD plan to continue to launch additional POES and DMSP satellites every few years, with final launches scheduled for 2008 and 2011, respectively. Each of the polar satellites carries a suite of sensors designed to detect environmental data that is either reflected or emitted from the earth, the atmosphere, and space. The satellites store these data and then transmit them to NOAA and Air Force ground stations when the satellites pass overhead. The ground stations then relay the data via communications satellites to the appropriate meteorological centers for processing. The satellites also broadcast a subset of these data in real time to tactical receivers all over the world. Under a shared processing agreement among the four processing centers— NESDIS, the Air Force Weather Agency, Navy’s Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center, and the Naval Oceanographic Office—different centers are responsible for producing and distributing via a shared network different environmental data sets, specialized weather and oceanographic products, and weather prediction model outputs. Each of the four processing centers is also responsible for distributing the data to its respective users. For the DOD centers, the users include regional meteorology and oceanography centers, as well as meteorology and oceanography staff on military bases. NESDIS forwards the data to NOAA’s National Weather Service for distribution and use by government and commercial forecasters. The processing centers also use the Internet to distribute data to the general public. NESDIS is responsible for the long- term archiving of data and derived products from POES and DMSP. In addition to the infrastructure supporting satellite data processing noted above, properly equipped field terminals that are within a direct line of sight of the satellites can receive real-time data directly from the polar- orbiting satellites. There are an estimated 150 such field terminals operated by U.S. and foreign governments, academia, and many are operated by DOD. Field terminals can be taken into areas with little or no data communications infrastructure—such as on a battlefield or a ship—and enable the receipt of weather data directly from the polar-orbiting satellites. These terminals have their own software and processing capability to decode and display a subset of the satellite data to the user. Figure 2 depicts a generic data relay pattern from the polar-orbiting satellites to the data processing centers and field terminals. Given the expectation that combining the POES and DMSP programs would reduce duplication and result in sizable cost savings, a May 1994 Presidential Decision Directive required NOAA and DOD to converge the two satellite programs into a single satellite program capable of satisfying both civilian and military requirements. The converged program, NPOESS, is considered critical to the United States’ ability to maintain the continuity of data required for weather forecasting and global climate monitoring. To manage this program, DOD, NOAA, and NASA formed a tri-agency Integrated Program Office located within NOAA. Within the program office, each agency has the lead on certain activities. NOAA has overall program management responsibility for the converged system, as well as satellite operations; DOD has the lead on the acquisition; and NASA has primary responsibility for facilitating the development and incorporation of new technologies into the converged system. NOAA and DOD share the costs of funding NPOESS, while NASA funds specific technology projects and studies. Figure 3 depicts the organizations coordinated by the Integrated Program Office and their responsibilities. Program acquisition plans call for the procurement and launch of six NPOESS satellites over the life of the program, as well as the integration of 13 instruments, consisting of 11 environmental systems and 2 subsystems. Together, the sensors are to receive and transmit data on atmospheric, cloud cover, environmental, climate, oceanographic, and solar-geophysical observations. The subsystems are to support nonenvironmental search and rescue efforts and environmental data collection activities. According to the program office, 7 of the 13 planned NPOESS instruments involve new technology development, whereas 6 others are based on existing technologies. In addition, the program office considers 4 of the sensors involving new technologies critical because they provide data for key weather products; these sensors are shown in bold in table 1, which presents the planned instruments and the state of technology on each. In addition, the NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP), which is being developed as a major risk reduction initiative, is a planned demonstration satellite to be launched in 2006, several years before the first NPOESS satellite launch in 2009. It is scheduled to host three of the four critical NPOESS sensors (the visible/infrared imager radiometer suite, the cross- track infrared sounder, and the advanced technology microwave sounder), as well as one other noncritical sensor (the ozone mapper/profiler suite). NPP will provide the program office and the processing centers an early opportunity to work with the sensors, ground control, and data processing systems. Specifically, this satellite is expected to demonstrate the validity of about half of the NPOESS environmental data records and about 93 percent of its data processing load. When the NPOESS development contract was awarded, program office officials identified an anticipated schedule and funding stream for the program. The schedule for launching the satellites was driven by a requirement that the satellites be available to back up the final POES and DMSP satellites should anything go wrong during the planned launches of these satellites. In general, program officials anticipate that roughly 1 out of every 10 satellites will fail either during launch or during early operations after launch. Key program milestones included (1) launching NPP by May 2006, (2) having the first NPOESS satellite available to back up the final POES satellite launch in March 2008, and (3) having the second NPOESS satellite available to back up the final DMSP satellite launch in October 2009. If the NPOESS satellites were not needed to back up the final predecessor satellites, their anticipated launch dates would have been April 2009 and June 2011, respectively. These schedules were changed as a result of changes in the NPOESS funding stream. A DOD program official reported that between 2001 and 2002 the agency experienced delays in launching a DMSP satellite, causing delays in the expected launch dates of another DMSP satellite. In late 2002, DOD shifted the expected launch date for the final DMSP satellite from 2009 to 2010. As a result, DOD reduced funding for NPOESS by about $65 million between fiscal years 2004 and 2007. According to NPOESS program officials, because NOAA is required to provide no more funding than DOD provides, this change triggered a corresponding reduction in funding by NOAA for those years. As a result of the reduced funding, program officials were forced to make difficult decisions about what to focus on first. The program office decided to keep NPP as close to its original schedule as possible because of its importance to the eventual NPOESS development and to shift some of the NPOESS deliverables to later years. This shift affected the NPOESS deployment schedule. To plan for this shift, the program office developed a new program cost and schedule baseline. The program office has increased the NPOESS life cycle cost estimate by $1.2 billion, from $6.9 to $8.1 billion, and delayed key milestones— including the expected availability of the first NPOESS satellite, which was delayed by 20 months. The cost increases reflect changes to the NPOESS contract as well as increased program management funds. The contract changes include extension of the development schedule, increased sensor costs, and additional funds needed for mitigating risks. Increased program management funds were added for non-contract costs and management reserves. The schedule delays were the result of stretching out the development schedule to accommodate the change in the NPOESS funding stream. In addition, the delayed launch dates of the NPOESS satellites have extended the maintenance and operation of the satellite system from 2018 to 2020. When we testified on the NPOESS program in July 2003, we reported that the program office was working to develop a new cost and schedule baseline due to a change in the NPOESS funding stream. The program office completed its efforts to revise the NPOESS cost and schedule baseline in December 2003. As a result of the revised baseline, the program office increased the NPOESS cost estimate by $638 million, from $6.9 to $7.5 billion.