WASHINGTON — NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite on Oct. 15 arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, where it will be mated with the United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket slated to launch it into a near-polar orbit Jan. 29.

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Dan Leone is a SpaceNews staff writer, covering NASA, NOAA and a growing number of entrepreneurial space companies. He earned a bachelor’s degree in public communications from the American University in Washington.