When things go right! First images and data from SMAP

So I’m now the proud parent of one orbiting, deployed, spinning, fully functional spacecraft!  The SMAP satellite is done initiating all its systems and has taken its first global soil measurement maps: Since the Earth environment where we built SMAP is very different than the space environment where we operate SMAP, we never before had […]

Launch Day Nerves

You don’t know how stressful launch days are until you live through one … or in my case, three.  Hundreds of us met before dawn on a golf course near Vandenberg Air Force Base and waited with anticipation as our satellite, SMAP, sat on the launch pad.  We were nervous and excited and hopeful. But […]