Orbiting Spacecraft
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The ACRIMSAT Mission, NASA's Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor (AcrimSat), is
a satellite designed to measure the total amount of sunlight falling on Earth's
atmosphere, oceans and land, and improve predictions of long-term climate change.
AcrimSat will measure Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) during its five-year
mission life. The ACRIMSAT spacecraft, carrying the ACRIM III instrument, will be
secondary payload on a Taurus vehicle launched December 20, 1999. The instrument, third in
a series of long-term solar-monitoring tools built for NASA by the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, will continue to extend the database first created by ACRIM I, which was
launched in 1980 on the Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) spacecraft. ACRIM II followed on the
Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) in 1991.
The Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) is an Explorer mission that is being managed by
the Office of Space Science Mission and Payload Development Division of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The
primary purpose of ACE is to determine and compare the isotopic and elemental composition
of several distinct samples of matter, including the solar corona, the interplanetary
medium, the local interstellar medium, and Galactic matter. As part of NASA's educational
outreach program, ACE is participating in the Cooperative Satellite Learning Program
(CSLP), and the ACE mission has been adopted by Old Bridge High School in Old Bridge,
New Jersey.
ACE Fact Sheet.
- ASCA (formerly named Astro-D) is Japan's fourth cosmic X-ray astronomy mission, and the
second for which the United States is providing part of the scientific payload. The
satellite was successfully launched on February 20, 1993. The first eight months of the
ASCA mission were devoted to performance verification. Having established the quality of
performance of all ASCA's instruments, the project changed to a general/guest observer for
the remainder of the mission. In this phase the observing program is open to astronomers
based at Japanese and US institutions, as well as those who are located in member states
of the European Space Agency.
Cluster
II
A fleet of four identical
spacecraft, called Cluster II, will explore portions of the Earth's
magnetosphere beginning in the summer of 2000 to try and understand all the
effects of the solar wind on Earth.
- CGRO safely deorbited reentered the atmosphere on June 4, 2000 ending its
mission. The observatory which was placed into orbit on April 5, 1991 by the Space Shuttle
Atlantis is one of NASA's four
"Great Observatories". CGRO's specific mission is to study the sources and
astrophysical processes that produce that highest energy electromagnetic radiation from
the cosmos. CGRO carries a complement of four instruments that provide simultaneous
observations covering over five decades of energy from 0.1 MeV to 30 GeV. The instruments
are the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE), the Oriented
Scintillation Spectrometer Experiment (OSSE),
the Imaging Compton Telescope (COMPEL),
and the Energetic Gamma-Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET). The spacecraft
is in a nearly circular orbit of approximately 450 kilometers, at an inclination of 28
degrees, and a period of 93 minutes.
Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS)
- This satellite is studying the processes to improve understanding of the Earth's
climate. The satellite was deployed by NASA's Space Shuttle on October 5, 1984. It
continues in its current orbit of 577 x 598 kilometer x 57 degree inclination.
- NASA's Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer satellite was launched on June 7, 1992 from Cape
Canaveral Air Station, Fla., aboard a Delta II expendable launch vehicle. The spacecraft
is currently in an orbit of 507 x 521 kilometer x 28 degrees inclination with a period of
95 minutes. EUVE has completed a survey of the entire celestial sphere in the extreme
ultraviolet spectrum. Spectroscopic observations of individual targets are now being
conducted through the office of the EUVE guest observer program. EUVE is mapping the
entire sky to determine the existence, direction, brightness and temperature of numerous
objects that are sources of extreme ultraviolet radiation. Some of the objects EUVE is likely to detect are white dwarf
stars, neutron stars, binary star systems and the hot outer atmospheres (coronae) of red
dwarf stars and stars similar to our Sun. EUVE ceased operation on
February 1, 2001.
- FAST is the second of the Small Explorer
(SMEX) low-cost, quick-turnaround missions. FAST was successfully launched on August
21, 1996, on an OSC Pegasus rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, and is
orbiting in a near-polar, highly elliptical (351 x 4175 km) orbit with an inclination of
83 degrees. It is investigating the plasma physics of the auroral phenomena (better know
as the northern or southern lights) which occur around both poles of the earth. FAST is
probing the physical processes that produce these dazzling displays, while adding
significantly to our understanding of the Earth's environment in space. This is being
accomplished by taking high data rate snapshots with electric and magnetic fields sensors,
and plasma particle instrument, while traversing through the auroral regions.
- GOES-8, 9 and 10 (also known as I, J and K) are geostationary weather satellites
developed and launched by NASA for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). GOES-I and J are
providing atmospheric images, temperature and humidity profiles, wind velocity data and
severe storm coverage of Earth's western hemisphere and are now a key element in National
Weather Service (NWS) Operations. Both GOES-I and J were launched aboard an Atlas rocket
from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., on April 13, 1994, and May 23, 1995, respectively,
and the nation's newest geostationary weather satellite, GOES-10, successfully completed
testing on June 15, 1998, and is ready to replace one of the older weather satellites when
needed. GOES-10 was launched in April 25, 1997, and currently is stored in orbit. GOES-L was launched May 3, 2000 at 3:07 am from Cape
Canaveral Air Station.
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- GOES satellite images are best known to television viewers as the cloud images that are
shown on TV weather forecasts. GOES-8 overlooks the east coast of North and South America,
and well out into the Atlantic Ocean. GOES-9 overlooks the west coast and out into the
Pacific Ocean, including Hawaii. GOES Project Science
- The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is a world class astronomical observatory in orbit
above the earth. It s a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European
Space agency (ESA). Launched on the shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990, HST is on a
15-year mission to explore the universe in the optical range from ultraviolet (UV) through
visible and into the infrared (IR). It is operated by NASA as a general observer facility
available to astronomers from all countries. Hubble is the first observatory designed to
be serviced in orbit by shuttle astronauts with servicing and maintenance missions
scheduled for every three years. The first servicing occurred during an eleven day mission
in December, 1993. The HST team developed a corrective optics package that restored Hubble
to its intended imaging capabilities. The NASA astronaut spacewalking team also replaced
other parts of the observatory. As the telescope continues its science mission, scientists
and engineers are working toward the next servicing mission. The second in a planned
series of four servicing missions for HST is scheduled to launch aboard the Shuttle
Discovery in February 1997. The manifest will include two new scientific instruments: the
Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) and the Space Telescope
Imaging Spectrograph (STIS). In addition, one of the tape recorders will be replaced with
a state-of-the-art Solid State Recorder (SSR) and a gyro Rate Sensing Unit (RSU) will be
replaced with a Hemispherical Resonator Gyro (HRG) unit. One of the Fine Guidance Sensors
(FGS) is also manifest for changeout along with some electronics. Other servicing missions
are planned for 1999, 2002 and 2005.
- Goddard's Role in the HST
About Space Telescope Science Institute
- The Space Telescope Science Institute is the astronomical research center responsible
for operating the Hubble Space Telescope as an international observatory.
Goddard Space Flight Center - Hubble links for 2nd
Servicing Mission - Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the Hubble Space
Telescope Second Servicing Mission (SM-2)
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Imager for
Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE)
- IMAGE will use neutral atom, ultraviolet, and radio imaging techniques to: identify the
dominant mechanisms for injecting plasma into the magnetosphere on substorm and magnetic
storm time scales; determine the directly driven response of the magnetosphere to solar
wind changes; and, discover how and where magnetospheric plasmas are energized,
transported, and subsequently lost during substorms and magnetic storms.
International Cometary Explorer (ICE)
- The primary mission objectives of the International Cometary Explorer are to determine
the composition and physical state of the Giacobinia-Zinner comet's nucleus; to determine
the processes that govern the composition and distribution of neutral and ionized species
in the cometary atmosphere; and to investigate the interaction between the solar wind and
the cometary atmosphere. ICE was launched into space on August 12, 1978.
- The IMP-8 spacecraft was launched by NASA on October 26, 1973 to measure the magnetic
fields, plasmas, and energetic charged particles (e.g., cosmic rays) of the Earth's
magnetotail and magnetosheath, and of the near-Earth solar wind. IMP-8, the last of ten
IMP (Interplanetary Monitoring Platform) or AIMP (Anchored-IMP) spacecraft launched in 10
years, continues to operate to this day in an orbit of 189,024 x 247,267 kilometers x 29
degrees inclination. It is an important adjunct to the International Solar Terrestrial
Physics program.
Landsat-7
- Landsat 7 is the latest in a series of missions that began with Landsat 1 in 1972. This
data will provide scientists with new information on deforestation, receding glaciers and
crop monitoring. The data also will be available commercially for land-use planning and
urban development issues.
This new science spacecraft was built by Lockheed Martin
Missiles and Space in Valley Forge, Penn. The only instrument onboard, the Enhanced
Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) was built by Raytheon, formerly Hughes, Santa Barbara Remote
Sensing in Santa Barbara, Calif.
Landsat 7 is part of global program known as NASA’s Earth Science Enterprise, a
long-term program that is studying changes in Earth’s global environment. The goal of
the Earth Science Enterprise is to provide people a better understanding of natural
changes. Earth Science Enterprise data, which will be distributed to researchers worldwide
at the cost of reproduction, is essential to people making informed decisions about their
environment.
Landsat-7 Status Report #1
Landsat Fact Sheet
Landsat Press Kit (pdf version)
General Press
Release
Images from Landsat
"Science Writers' Guide to Landsat 7" web version has been posted on the
Landsat Program site at NASA Ames (under "Hot Items"): http://geo.arc.nasa.gov/sge/landsat/landsat.html
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- NOAA-14 and 15 (also known as J and K) are polar orbiting operational weather satellites
launched by the NASA POES Project for the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA-14 and 15 are providing
scientists the opportunity to study the global environment. Although the satellites are
operationally controlled by NOAA, data from the satellites is used as part of NASA's Earth
Science Enterprise program. NOAA-14 launched aboard an Atlas rocket from Vandenberg Air
Force Base, Calif., in December 1994, and NOAA-15 launched aboard a Titan II rocket from
Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., on May 13, 1998. The
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)-L
spacecraft, lifted off at 3:22:04 a.m. PDT, on an Air
Force-launched Titan II rocket on September 21, 2000. At 3:28:55 a.m. PDT,
the spacecraft separated from the Titan II second stage.
- Polar was launched from Vandenberg AFB in California on February 24, 1996 for the start
of a planned three-year mission. The Polar spacecraft is the second mission of NASA's
Global Geospace Science (GGS
) program. It will perform simultaneous, coordinated measurements of the key regions
of Earth's geospace, or space environment, with WIND, which was launched in November 1994
to measure the solar wind properties. A large array of ground-based scientific
observatories and mission related theoretical investigations will also be involved. The
Polar spacecraft, carrying 11 instruments, was launched on a Delta II rocket from the
Western Space and Missile Center, Lompoc, Calif. NASA is collaborating with the European
Space Agency (ESA) and the Japanese Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) in
three additional solar-terrestrial missions, Geotail, SOHO and Cluster. These missions,
together with GGS,
make up the International Solar-Terrestrial Physics (ISTP) science initiative. The aim of
ISTP is to understand the physical effects of solar activity on interplanetary space and
the Earth's space environment.
- The Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) was launched on a Delta II rocket December 30, 1995 into
a low Earth orbit at an altitude of 362 miles (580 km) and an inclination of 23 degrees.
R
XTE has three instruments studying the variable X-ray sky: the Proportional Counter Array,
the High Energy X-ray Timing Experiment and the All Sky Monitor. R XTE will gather data
about X-ray-emitting objects within the Milky Way and beyond. R XTE will perform timing
studies of X-ray sources, which vary in the intensity of their emissions, and spectral
studies, which will reveal emission processes and locations of regions emitting X-rays.
The spacecraft was launch from Cape Canaveral Air Station in Florida. NASA's Goddard Space
Flight Center manages the project.
- SeaWiFS is a powerful tool for understanding biological and physical
processes in the world's oceans by measuring the color of the ocean. The instrument is the
only scientific payload aboard the SeaStar
commercial spacecraft. SeaWiFS provides large amounts of ocean information to the Earth
science community. Because an orbiting satellite sensor can view every square mile (1.6
kilometers) of cloud-free ocean every 48 hours, SeaWiFS helps to assess the ocean's role
in the global carbon cycle.
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- Scientists strive to understand this exchange of carbon because of the possibility of
global climate change due to the build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from the
burning of fossil fuels. SeaWiFS launched on August 1, 1997, onboard an expendable Pegasus
(stretch) XL rocket from a modified Lockheed L-1011 jet on the U.S. West Coast.
SeaWIFS continues to collect critical scientific data.
A NASA spacecraft, launched successfuly on June 19, 1999, from Vandenberg AFB in
California on a Titan rocket. QuikSCAT will continue to collect important ocean wind
data that was begun by NSCAT in September 1996. The SeaWinds instrument on the Quik
Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) satellite is a specialized microwave radar that measures
near-surface wind speed and direction under all weather and cloud conditions over
Earth’s oceans. The instrument will collect wind-speed and wind direction data in a
continuous 1118 mile-wide band, making approximately 400,000 measurements each day.
SeaWinds uses a rotating dish antenna with two spot beams that sweep in a circular
pattern. The antenna radiates microwave pulses at a frequency of 13.4 gigahertz across
broad regions on Earth's surface. The instrument will collect data over ocean, land, and
ice in a continuous, 1,800-kilometer-wide band, making approximately 400,000 measurements
and covering 90% of Earth's surface in one day. SeaWinds Homepage
- SAMPEX is the first of a series of missions that was launched under the Small Explorer (SMEX) program that provides
frequent flight opportunities for highly focused and relatively inexpensive space science
missions. The main objectives of the SAMPEX experiments is to obtain data for several
continuous years on the anomalous, components of cosmic rays, on energetic particle
emissions from the Sun, and on the precipitating magnetospheric relativistic electrons.
SAMPEX was launched on July 3, 1992, from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on a
Scout expendable launch vehicle. It is currently being supported in a near-polar orbit of
550 x 675 kilometers with a 82 degree inclination.
- SOHO which is part of NASA's International Solar-Terrestrial Physics program was
launched December 2, 1995. The spacecraft was put into orbit on an Atlas-Centaur IIAS
rocket which was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Station, FL. The observatory will study
the physical processes taking place in the Sun's corona and changes in the Sun's interior
by conducting remote sensing observations in visible, ultraviolet and extreme ultraviolet
light. Goddard engineers and scientists are providing mission operations and scientific
analysis for the SOHO spacecraft.
TDRS-H
NASA launched the first of three new communications satellites, TDRS-H on June
30, 2000. This spacecraft will serve the Space Shuttle, International Space Station, Hubble Space
Telescope and other Earth-orbiting satellites with improved communications and
data relay services well into the 21st century.
Terra
Terra
(formerly EOS AM-1) is the flagship of the Earth Observing System, a series of spacecraft
that represent the next landmark steps in NASA's leadership role to observe the Earth from
the unique vantage point of space. Focused on key measurements identified by a consensus
of U.S. and international scientists, Terra will enable new research into the ways that
Earth's lands, oceans, air, ice, and life function as a total environmental system. Terra
launched December 18, 1999 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
The Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer, launched onboard an Earth Probe Satellite
(TOMS/EP) in July 1996. TOMS/EP is continuing NASA's long term daily mapping of the global
distribution of the Earth's atmospheric ozone. This NASA developed instrument, which
measures ozone indirectly by monitoring ultraviolet light, has mapped in detail the
Antarctic "ozone hole," which forms September through November of each year, and
the distribution of ozone over the globe.
TOMS/EP Mission Summary
TOMS/EP NASA Facts
TOMS
TOMS-EP
TOMS-ADEOS
TOMS-NIMBUS-7
TOMS-Meteor-3
Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE):
- The objective of the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) is to explore the
three-dimensional magnetic structures which emerge through the visible surface of the Sun
-- the Photosphere -- and define both the geometry and dynamics of the upper solar
atmosphere - the Transition Region and Corona. The magnetic field geometry can be seen in
images of solar plasma taken in wavelengths emitted or absorbed by atoms and ions formed
in different temperature ranges. The transition from the 6000 degree K Photosphere, where
magnetic fields and plasma are in rough equipartition (low beta), to the multi-million
degree Corona, where the magnetic fields dominate (high beta), is extremely difficult to
model. Many of the physical process that occur here -- plasma confinement, reconnection,
wave propagation, plasma heating -- arise throughout space physics and astrophysics. And
to date, no images have ever been collected that show the required temperature range
nearly simultaneously with both high spatial and temporal resolution. The TRACE data will
provide quantitative observational constraints on the models and thus stimulate real
advances in our understanding of the transition from low to high beta plasma. The solar
atmosphere is constantly evolving because the magnetic fields which dominate the Corona
are continuously being displaced by the convective motions in the outer layers of the sun
just below the Photosphere. A major objective of the TRACE investigation is to explore the
relation between diffusion of the surface magnetic fields and the changes in heating and
structure throughout the Transition Region and Corona. The simultaneous movies of the 6000
to 10,000,000 degree K volume of the solar atmosphere will allow us to determine the rate
of change of the magnetic topology and the nature of the local restructuring and
reconnection processes.
- Occasionally new magnetic flux emerges through the solar surface and organizes into
local concentrations the largest of which are sunspots. The emergence of new flux has
profound effects on the overlying atmosphere and often triggers a variety of phenomena
which release significant amounts of energy and which can result in major restructuring of
the Corona, the interplanetary medium, and the Earth's magnetosphere. Therefore, TRACE
will observe nearly continuously for an extended period to study not only the
"quiet" solar atmosphere but also the more episodic active Sun. TRACE was
launched into orbit on April 1, onboard an Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus-XL rocket that
was released from an L-1011 jet aircraft at the Western Range, Vandenberg Air Force Base,
CA.
FACT Sheet
Press Release 97-037
Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM):
- The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) is a joint mission between NASA and the
National Space Development Agency (NASDA) of Japan designed to monitor and study tropical
rainfall and the associated release of energy that helps to power the global atmospheric
circulation shaping both weather and climate around the globe. For more detailed
information on why we need TRMM, see the background section. The TRMM Observatory carries
five instruments. It includes the first spaceborne Precipitation Radar (PR), the TRMM
Microwave Imager (TMI), a Visible and Infrared Scanner (VIRS), a Cloud and Earth Radiant
Energy System (CERES), and a Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS). TRMM launched November 27,
1997 from Tanegashima Space Center in Japan. TRMM is operating well and is providing
scientists with important scientific data.
- Deployed from the Space Shuttle Discovery on Sept. 15, 1991, the Goddard Space Flight
Center's (GSFC) Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), has provided scientists with
information to gain a better understanding of the energy input, chemistry and dynamics of
the upper atmosphere and the coupling between the upper and lower atmosphere. UARS, the
first satellite dedicated to studying stratospheric science, focuses on the processes that
lead to ozone depletion.
- The Wind spacecraft was launched on a Delta Launch Vehicle from Cape Canaveral Air
Station in Florida on November 1, 1994. Wind is the first of two missions of the Global
Geospace Science initiative, which is the United States portion of the worldwide
collaboration called the International Solar-Terrestrial Physics (ISTP) program. The main
purpose of the WIND spacecraft is to measure the incoming solar wind, magnetic fields and
particles, although early on it will also observe the Earth's foreshock region. Wind,
together with Geotail, Polar, SOHO, and Cluster projects, constitute the ISTP program
which aims at gaining improved understanding of the physics of solar terrestrial
relations.
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XMM-Newton
- XMM (short for X-ray
Multi-Mirror Mission) will be a prime tool for astronomers studying black holes, star
formation and much more. XMM was built largely by the European Space Agency (ESA) and was
launched December 10, 1999.
From its incarnation, XMM was designed to complement the
recently launched Chandra
Observatory. For example, Chandra's sensitive cameras
produce sharp images
of newborn stars and supernova
remnants. XMM's huge collecting area,
in turn, captures enough X-ray photons to reveal the temperature and velocity of the gas
in these objects.
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