US-French earth observation satellite mission ends
Posted: Thu, Jul 4, 2013, 9:25 AM ET (1325 GMT)
A Franco-American satellite that has observed the Earth's oceans for over a decade was formally retired this week after a transmitter failure. NASA and the French space agency CNES jointly developed the Jason-1 satellite, launched in December 2001 by a Delta 2 rocket, to measure sea levels, wind speeds, and wave heights over most of the world's oceans. Controllers lost contact with Jason-1 on June 21 after the last scheduled communications pass indicated no problems with the spacecraft. Engineers believe that last working transmitter on the spacecraft failed, preventing the spacecraft from communicating with the ground. Jason-1 was designed to last three to five years. A successor spacecraft, Jason-2, is providing similar data, while Jason-3 is under development for launch in 2015.
A Franco-American satellite that has observed the Earth's oceans for over a decade was formally retired this week after a transmitter failure. NASA and the French space agency CNES jointly developed the Jason-1 satellite, launched in December 2001 by a Delta 2 rocket, to measure sea levels, wind speeds, and wave heights over most of the world's oceans. Controllers lost contact with Jason-1 on June 21 after the last scheduled communications pass indicated no problems with the spacecraft. Engineers believe that last working transmitter on the spacecraft failed, preventing the spacecraft from communicating with the ground. Jason-1 was designed to last three to five years. A successor spacecraft, Jason-2, is providing similar data, while Jason-3 is under development for launch in 2015.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
Apex becomes billion-dollar company with $200 million Series D round
Posted: Sun, Sep 14 4:09 AM ET (0809 GMT) |
|
news links
|
|
Monday, September 15
Elon Musk's Starlink reports service outage, thousands of users affected
Reuters — 1:23 am ET (0523 GMT) What does the loss of U.S. Space Command mean to Colorado Springs?
Denver Post — 1:21 am ET (0521 GMT) SpaceX Launches Northrop Grumman Cargo Ship To ISS
Aviation Week — 1:18 am ET (0518 GMT) SpaceX launches Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral on Sunday
WESH-TV Orlando — 1:18 am ET (0518 GMT) Apollo 13 made Jim Lovell a legend generations after the space race
The Hill — 1:09 am ET (0509 GMT) |
