Directorate & Agency Contributions

The National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Integrated Program Office (IPO) is staffed with personnel from the Department of Commerce (DoC), Department of Defense (DoD), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). These three agencies serve as the program directorates as follows:

	The DoC through NOAA has overall responsibility for the program, as well as for satellite C3 operations.
	The DoD through the Air Force has the primary responsibility to acquire and support the converged satellites.
	NASA has lead responsibility for facilitating development and insertion of new cost-effective technologies that may enhance the ability of the converged system to meet its operational requirements.

Agency Contributions

The DoC, through NOAA, is responsible for overall management of the NPOESS program and has lead agency responsibility to support the IPO for satellite operations. NOAA nominates the System Program Director, who will be approved by the Executive Committee. NOAA also has the lead responsibility for interacting with national and international civil user communities, consistent with national security and foreign policy requirements.

The DoD has lead agency responsibility to support the IPO in major system acquisitions necessary for NPOESS. The DoD nominates the Principal Deputy System Program Director, who is approved by the System Program Director.