US weather satellite, test payload launched into space

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A satellite intended to improve weather forecasting and an experimental inflatable heat shield to protect spacecraft entering atmospheres have been launched into space from California. A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying the Joint Polar Satellite System-2 satellite and the NASA test payload lifted off at 1:49 a.m. Thursday (Nov. 10, 2022) from Vandenberg Space Force Base, northwest of Los Angeles. Developed for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, JPSS-2 was placed into an orbit that circles the Earth from pole to pole. The secondary payload was targeted for a re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere and descent into the Pacific Ocean east of Ha