SMAP is spinning! This morning the antenna was spun up to a rate of 5 rotations per minute (rpm). The spacecraft's counter-rotation was then nulled out, and the entire observatory aligned back to nadir pointing (looking down) with solar arrays pointed at the sun. Everything appears nominal and engineers are evaluating system performance over the next few days before proceeding to the final spin rate of 14.6 rpm. | NASA SMAP Mission