NASA’s Libera instrument, which is designed to maintain the global data record of Earth’s radiation budget, has successfully completed comprehensive environmental testing. This critical milestone included thermal vacuum tests that simulate the expected space temperature and environments that Libera will experience during its mission. The Libera instrument will fly on Joint Polar Satellite System-4 (JPSS-4), the next satellite in the series, as part of a collaboration between NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The satellite, targeted for launch in 2027, will be named NOAA-22 once in orbit.
The University of Colorado Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) developed and built the Libera instrument after it was selected as the first Earth Venture Continuity mission – a NASA program that focuses on innovative, low-cost ways to maintain important Earth science measurements as older missions come to an end. Libera will continue the data record of Earth’s radiation budget, following the series of Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) instruments that flew on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission in 1997 and continued on the Terra, Aqua, Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership, and NOAA-20 satellites. Libera is named for the daughter of Ceres in Roman mythology, a nod to its pre …