US-European ocean-monitoring satellite sent into orbit
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The latest in a series of U.S.-European satellites designed to detect and measure ocean phenomena like El Nino has reached orbit after launching aboard a SpaceX rocket that will attempt to land its discarded first stage on a floating barge.
Like its three predecessors, Jason-3 is equipped with radar altimeter to bounce microwave energy off the ocean and a GPS system to identify the satellite's precise location.
Other pragmatic uses include measuring global sea level rise, and forecasting the strength of hurricanes, other severe weather and ocean conditions for the shipping industry and in response to oil spills.
Jason-3 is a project of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA, the French space agency Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, and the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites.
Two previous attempts to land a rocket on a barge in the Atlantic failed, but last month SpaceX succeeded in returning a rocket to a vertical landing at Cape Canaveral, Florida, after putting a cluster of satellites into orbit.