Recent News
August 24, 2023
TEMPO Instrument Captures Its First Images of Air Pollution Over Greater North America
TEMPO is the first space-based probe to measure air pollution hourly over North America at neighborhood scale.
August 24, 2023
NASA Shares First Images from US Pollution-Monitoring Instrument
From its orbit 22,000 miles above the equator, NASA’s TEMPO, or Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution, is the first space-based instrument designed to continuously measure air quality above North America with the resolution of a few square miles.
June 07, 2023
Two months after launch, following the successful testing of its Maxar built host satellite Intelsat 40e, NASA’s TEMPO (short for Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution) air quality instrument has been turned on for the first time.
April 07, 2023
Liftoff! TEMPO Instrument Soars into Space
Cape Canaveral, FL – On Friday, April 7 at 12:30 a.m. ET, the motors of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rumbled to life and ignited, lighting up the otherwise dark morning sky. The rocket blasted off from launch pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Its mission: to carry the satellite, Intelsat 40e — host of the NASA-Smithsonian instrument TEMPO — into space.
April 5, 2023
TEMPO Scheduled for Launch
SpaceX is targeting Friday, April 7 for launch of the Intelsat IS-40e mission to a geosynchronous transfer orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The 119-minute launch window opens at 12:30 a.m. ET (04:30 UTC). If needed, a backup opportunity is available on Saturday, April 8 with a 119-minute window opening at 12:29 a.m. ET (04:29 UTC).
March 31, 2023
NASA Media Call on Upcoming Air Quality Satellite Launch
Media are invited to participate in a teleconference discussing the upcoming launch of TEMPO on Wednesday, April 5. TEMPO will soon provide the first-ever hourly scans of air pollution over greater North America.
March 22, 2023
TEMPO Instrument Arrives Safely in Florida
The satellite host of NASA's Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument recently arrived by aircraft at NASA's Kennedy Space Center ahead of its launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in early April.
March 08, 2023
Media Advisory: New Space Instrument To Deliver Near Real-Time Air Pollution Data
On Tuesday, March 14, NASA and the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian will host a mission and program briefing for the new, space-based instrument TEMPO, which will soon deliver detailed data and analysis of air pollution over greater North America.
February 27, 2023
Air Pollution Sensor Integrated and Tested with Commercial Satellite Host
On February 27, 2023, the TEMPO instrument and entire spacecraft successfully passed pre-launch testing at Maxar's facility in Palo Alto, California.
December 16, 2022
A Leading Light in Atmospheric Science
Delivering major new insights in the fight against climate change, the TEMPO mission will be a capstone to Kelly Chance’s career, which has focused on advancing the power of spectroscopy to study Earth’s atmosphere.
July 5, 2022
TEMPO Air Pollution Instrument Completes Satellite Integration
The TEMPO instrument has been fully integrated onto its host satellite, bringing it one step closer to launch.
July 14, 2021
First major system integration complete
The TEMPO Instrument includes two major systems: Instrument Control Electronics (ICE) and Sensor. The TEMPO ICE mechanical integration onto the Intelsat 40e spacecraft was successfully completed at Maxar on Wednesday, July 14th.
May 21, 2021
TEMPO Air Pollution Sensor Treks Toward Satellite Integration
The TEMPO instrument will soon be integrated onto a satellite and tested to ensure that it can survive the space environment. TEMPO shipped from Ball Aerospace in Broomfield, Colorado, to Maxar Technologies' satellite manufacturing facility in Palo Alto, California.
March 18, 2020
NASA's TEMPO Satellite Host Named
>The TEMPO instrument, a NASA satellite instrument lead by Principal Investigator Kelly Chance from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, will launch to orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle. The launch is planned for 2022.
Feb. 3, 2020
NASA's TEMPO Satellite Host Named
Maxar Technologies and Intelsat recently agreed to partner to host NASA’s TEMPO instrument onboard the Intelsat 40e mission. In 2019, NASA selected Maxar to host the TEMPO instrument utilizing the U.S. Air Force Hosted Payload Solutions (HoPS) contract vehicle. Intelsat 40e is based on Maxar's 1300-class satellite platform and will provide commercial satellite communications for Intelsat customers in North and Central America. The satellite is scheduled to launch into geostationary orbit 22,236 miles above Earth's equator in 2022.
July 22, 2019
TEMPO Air Pollution Sensor Books A Ride To Space
NASA has secured a host satellite provider and ride into space for an instrument that will dramatically advance our understanding of air quality over North America. Maxar Technologies of Westminster, Colorado, will provide satellite integration, launch and data transmission services for TEMPO, an Earth science instrument that will observe air pollution over North America in unprecedented detail from a geostationary orbit.
A contract with Maxar was awarded by the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center through its Hosted Payload Solutions contract.
Dec 07, 2018
NASA’s TEMPO Instrument Successfully Completes Development
An Earth science space instrument that will measure air pollution over North America has successfully completed development by Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colorado and has been formally accepted by NASA.
NASA has taken over ownership of the Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution, or TEMPO, flight hardware, but the instrument will remain in storage at Ball while a host spacecraft is selected.
While awaiting a ride on a host commercial spacecraft, the TEMPO instrument will be kept in a cleanroom storage area at Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Colorado.
Credit: Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp.
May 31, 2018
NASA’s TEMPO Requests Proposals for Satellite Hosting Services
The Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument will make observations from a geostationary vantage point, about 22,000 miles above Earth's equator, flying on a commercial satellite.To accomplish this, TEMPO has partnered with the U.S. Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center in El Segundo, California, and will employ their Hosted Payload Solutions (HoPS) contract. Proposals have been requested from the 11 commercial companies associated with the HoPS contract.
Sept. 21, 2017
TEMPO completes spectrometer testing and verification
"The completion of characterization and calibration of the TEMPO spectrometer is a critical milestone in the development of our fundamental atmospheric pollution mission, which is a result of collaboration among Ball Aerospace, NASA's Langley Research Center, and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory" said Kelly Chance, TEMPO Principal Investigator, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. "Together, we are all looking forward to the next steps on the way to providing hourly atmospheric pollution measurements for greater North America."
May 4, 2016
TEMPO Instrument Passes Critical Design Reviews
TEMPO has now passed the Critical Design Reviews for the instrument (June 24-25 at Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, CO) and the Ground System (May 3-4 at SAO in Cambridge, MA). The instrument is well on the way to being fabricated and characterized by Ball, with an expected completion and delivery date in mid calendar year 2017. The Ground System, consisting of the Instrument Operations Center and the Science Data Processing Center, located at SAO, will be completed and fully operational in time for the earliest possible launch date, November 2018.
May 6, 2015
TEMPO POLLUTION MONITORING INSTRUMENT PASSES CRITICAL NASA REVIEW
It was confirmed by NASA's Science Mission Directorate to continue into Phase C of the project, in which the team completes the design that meets science and measurement requirements, fabricates the instrument, and develops the ground system.