NASA Launches New Satellite to Map Rising Seas

PARIS — The U.S.-European Jason-2 ocean altimetry satellite was launched successfully June 20 aboard a Delta 2 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., on a five-year mission to continue the uninterrupted study of ocean levels and currents that was begun in the early 1990s in a U.S.-French partnership.

The launch featured the use of a video camera mounted on the Delta 2 upper stage and trained on the Jason-2 satellite to beam live images of the satellite's separation from the rocket and the deployment of its two solar arrays.

NASA spokesman Alan Buis said that while a similar camera angle has been used once before on a Delta 2 mission, the Jason-2 launch was the first time a live video stream from a Delta 2 captured solar-panel deployment.

Building upon the work of its Topex-Poseidon and Jason-1 predecessors, built for the French space agency, CNES, and NASA, Jason-2 has the added support of the U.S. and European meteorological agencies. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and its European counterpart, the 21-nation Eumetsat, each made financial contributions to Jason-2, a demonstration of the increasing number of military and civil organizations that make regular use of ocean-altimetry.

The growing population of Jason data users has made clear that, in order to justify investing in future applications, it needs to be assured that there will be no interruption of altimetry data. This remains a weak point in the Jason program.

Topex-Poseidon was launched in 1992 on a mission designed to last between three and five years. It ended up functioning for more than a decade, meaning the delays in the launch of Jason-1 in 2001 did not cause gaps in data gathering.

Similarly, Jason-1 was designed to operate for five years but has remained healthy to this day.

Jason-2 also is designed to last five years, and as of now there is no firm decision on a Jason-3. NASA has said that, as a research agency, its job is not to produce multiple copies of the same hardware. It will not be taking part in any future Jason missions.

CNES has adopted the same view as NASA, but has said it has a spare model of the same satellite platform used for Jason-2 and is willing to contribute that to a Jason-3 effort. NOAA and Eumetsat have indicated they likely will support Jason-3 but have made no formal commitments.

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