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NASA joins Ocean Surface Topography Mission NASA NEWS RELEASE Posted: April 11, 2006 NASA has signed an agreement with other U.S. and international agencies to launch the Ocean Surface Topography Mission in 2008. The satellite, named Jason-2, will increase our understanding of ocean circulation and improve climate forecasts and measurements of global sea-level change. The 3- to 5-year mission will extend the ocean topography measurements collected since 1992, first by TOPEX/Poseidon and now by Jason. NASA is cooperating with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), France's Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) on this mission. "This agreement substantially advances the continuation of a long-term record of sea-level measurements based on satellite measurements of sea level height, which are needed to understand ocean circulation and its long-term climate effects," said Eric Lindstrom, NASA's Ocean Surface Topography Mission program scientist. The mission will also study how ocean circulation varies from season to season, from year to year and from decade to decade. It will improve the measure of global sea-level change and models of tides in the open ocean. Operational organizations and researchers will use the data in marine meteorology and sea-state forecasting, operational oceanography, seasonal forecasting, climate and ocean monitoring and Earth and climate research. NASA will provide several of the mission's science instruments, including an advanced microwave radiometer, laser retroreflector array and Global Positioning System payload receiver package. NASA will also provide launch services on a Boeing Delta II rocket. NOAA will provide a satellite-control center, stations for commanding the spacecraft and acquiring data, data processing, and the infrastructure for archiving and distributing mission data. After the satellite's launch and an engineering assessment, CNES will hand over management of the satellite to NOAA. CNES will provide a PROTEUS satellite platform and payload module. They will also provide several of the science instruments, including a Poseidon-3 dual-frequency radar altimeter and the Doppler Orbitography and Radiopositioning Integrated by Satellite orbit-determination system. They will also provide a satellite command and control center, data processing and infrastructure for archiving and distributing mission data. EUMETSAT will provide a site and infrastructure for the European Earth terminal, which will be integrated into the EUMETSAT ground segment infrastructure. They will also provide data processing and an infrastructure for archiving and distributing mission data. |
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In this highly entertaining program, commander John Young and pilot Bob Crippen of the first space shuttle crew tell stories and memories from STS-1. The two respected astronauts visited Kennedy Space Center on April 6 to mark the upcoming 25th anniversary of Columbia's maiden voyage.
The October 1984 flight of space shuttle Challenger featured a diverse set of accomplishments. The Earth Radiation Budget Satellite environmental spacecraft was deployed and a planet-mapping radar was tested. The seven-person crew was led by Bob Crippen and included the first Canadian in space, Marc Garneau, and the first time two women, Sally Ride and Kathryn Sullivan, had flown aboard one flight. Sullivan and Dave Leestma also conducted a spacewalk to demonstrate techniques for refueling satellites. The crew narrates this post-flight film of STS-41G.
On April 5, 1991, space shuttle Atlantis lifted off from Kennedy Space Center carrying the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory -- NASA's second Great Observatory. Launch occurred at 9:23 a.m. from pad 39B.
The combined Expedition 12 and 13 crews, along with visiting Brazilian astronaut Marcos Pontes, hold this in-flight news conference with reporters in Houston, Cape Canaveral and Moscow on April 3. The crews are handing over duties during this week-long handover before Expedition 12 returns to Earth from the space station.
The Russian Soyuz TMA-8 spacecraft carrying the Expedition 13 resident crew successfully docks to the Zarya module of the International Space Station under automated control.