Raytheon Company's Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) Common Ground System (CGS) recently added the Japanese Space Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Global Change Observation Mission 1 satellite to its growing list of global environmental missions. JPSS CGS now supports five domestic and international missions. With minimal enhancements and investments, JPSS CGS validates the efficiency of a common ground system.

"Since being deployed for NOAA's Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership in 2011, JPSS CGS, one of the few multi-mission ground solutions, is now providing unprecedented global observation capability," said Bill Sullivan , JPSS CGS program director for Raytheon's Intelligence and Information Systems business. "In today's budget environment, leveraging a common ground system across national and international agencies is the most efficient and cost effective way to improve global environmental observational capabilities."

In less than six months from contract award, JPSS CGS was ready to fully support the scheduled JAXA launch. By leveraging a flexible architecture and integrating new and legacy technologies, the JPSS CGS reduces development and sustainment costs and has proven it can be quickly adapted to a variety of mission needs spanning civil, military and scientific communities. 

In addition to supporting NOAA's Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership and the Japanese Space Exploration Agency's Global Change Observation Mission 1, other JPSS CGS support includes the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites' Meteorological Operational Satellite and DoD's Defense Meteorological Satellite Program. In the future, the Raytheon JPSS CGS will support NOAA's JPSS-1 and JPSS-2 missions, as well as the JPSS Free-Flyer mission, which will fly instruments that cannot be accommodated on JPSS satellites.