U.S.-French Earth Science Satellite Ready To Ship For December Launch
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
A joint U.S.-French Earth science mission is ready to be delivered to California for a launch now scheduled for early December, a slight delay caused in part because of transportation issues.
Thales Alenia Space, the prime contractor for the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) spacecraft, said Sept. 6 it is making final preparations to ship the two-ton spacecraft from its factory in Cannes, France, to Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. There, it will be integrated with a SpaceX Falcon 9 for a launch no earlier than Dec. 5.
SWOT, a joint mission of NASA and the French space agency CNES, with participation from the Canadian Space Agency and U.K. Space Agency, will carry out observations for oceanography and hydrology using a synthetic aperture radar, altimeter and other instruments. Scientists plan to use SWOT to conduct a global survey of the Earth's water, including measuring changes in lakes and rivers as well as ocean currents.
[...] We had a slight issue with the transport of it," said Kathleen Boggs, acting associate director for flight programs in NASA's Earth science division, at an Aug. 2 advisory committee meeting. It was supposed to come back on a Ukrainian Antonov aircraft that was provided by CNES."
Those aircraft, though, have largely been grounded because of sanctions and other issues linked to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
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