NASA Preparing For Final Launch of 2022

NASA is preparing to close out what has been undeniably one of the busiest years in the agency's history with major milestones including JWST becoming operational, DART, Artemis, 2 ISS crew launches, LOFTID tech demonstrator and much more. SpaceX will launch the Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite as part of NASA's Launch Services Program or LSP.

Today mission managers at NASA and SpaceX met for a Flight Readiness Review (FRR), this involved discussion of rocket status, spacecraft health, clearing out actions from prior reviews among other topics. All is trending towards an on time launch next Thursday.

What Is SWOT?

Credit: NASA

SWOT is a joint partnership between NASA, CNES (the French space agency), UK Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency to conduct the first global survey of the Earth's surface water, to observe the fine details of the ocean surface topography, and to measure how terrestrial surface water bodies change over time.

SWOT is a vital resource to understand how climate change is affecting oceans here on earth.

Launch is scheduled for 11:46 UTC (06:46 EST) on Thursday, December 15 from SpaceX's SLC-4E pad at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.