Satellite News

Designed for a three-to-five-year mission, the joint U.S./European Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM) on the Jason-2 satellite has marked its 10th year in orbit .

Ten years ago, ISS-Reshetnev’s small satellite Yubileiny was launched into space from the Plesetsk cosmodrome. Having a mass of just 45 kilograms, it was placed on a low Earth orbit from where transmitted amateur radio signals for four years.

On 21 February 2008, the German radar satellite TerraSAR-X and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency satellite NFIRE, both equipped with Laser Communication Terminals (LCT) manufactured by Tesat-Spacecom, established the first successful and stable orbital laser link.

ESA’s first Earth observation satellite was launched on 23 November 1977. When the first Meteosat satellite took its place in the sky, it completed coverage of the whole globe from geostationary orbit and laid the foundations for European and world co-operation in meteorology that continues today.

Designed to operate for five years, Airbus’s Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite TerraSAR-X has achieved ten years of flawless operations in orbit providing high-resolution radar images in all weather conditions 24 hours a day.

On 7 June 2007, the first satellite in Italy’s COSMO-SkyMed constellation was successfully launched in California. The Earth observation system was completed in 2010 (four satellites in total).

The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Microwave Imager (GMI), designed and built by Ball Aerospace for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, is entering its fourth year of service.

The NOAA/NASA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite, built by Ball Aerospace, was launched five years ago on 28 October 2011. Since then, Suomi NPP has provided life-saving data to weather forecasters and has given scientists new tools to help monitor the health of our planet.