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⇱ Seasat - Earth Missions - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory | NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

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Seasat

Seasat

One of the earliest Earth-observing satellites, Seasat was designed to test various oceanographic sensors and gain a better understanding of Earth's seas.

Mission Statistics

Launch Date

June 26, 1978

Type

Orbiter

Target

Earth

Status

Past

About the mission

One of the earliest Earth-observing satellites, Seasat was designed to test various oceanographic sensors and gain a better understanding of Earth's seas.

Seasat operated in Earth orbit for 105 days, measuring sea-surface winds and temperatures, wave heights, atmospheric liquid water content, sea ice features and ocean topography, before a massive short circuit in the spacecraft's electrical system ended the mission on October 10, 1978.

Instruments

  • Radar altimeter
  • Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)
  • SEASAT-A Satellite Scatterometer (SASS)
  • Visible and Infrared Radiometer (VIRR)
  • Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR)