2 sports car-sized satellites in orbit to measure Earth’s water
In this photo provided by NASA, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the NASA/German Research Centre for Geosciences GRACE Follow-On space craft lifts off from Vandenberg
Air Force Base in California on May 22. (AP) A SpaceX rocket Tuesday blasted off a duo of sports carsized satellites built by the US and Germany to reveal changes in sea level rise, ice melt and drought on Earth.
“Three, two, one, liftoff!” said a SpaceX commentator as the Falcon 9 rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 12:47 pm Pacific time (1947 GMT).
The $521 million payload, called the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-on (GRACE-FO), was successfully deployed into its planned orbit some 310 miles (500 kilometers) above the Earth about 10 minutes after liftoff.
The mission picks up from GRACE, a satellite pair that launched in 2002 and tracked, among other things, precisely how much ice was lost each year in Greenland and Antarctica until 2017.
Groundwater, oceans, lakes, rivers and ice sheets will be monitored by the twin satellites, a joint mission between the US space agency and German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ).
The pair will fly 137 miles (220 kilometers) apart, or about the distance from Los Angeles to San Diego.
According to the laws of physics, the slightest variation in mass on Earth modifies the pull of gravity on satellites.
After the SpaceX rocket sent off its first payload, GRACE-FO, its second stage continued its climb in order to deploy a series of commercial communications satellites for the Virginia-based company, Iridium.
The five Iridium NEXT satellites are “part of the company’s campaign to replace the world’s largest commercial satellite network,” said a statement.
A total of 75 satellites for Iridium are being sent to orbit as part of the upgrade, taking place over eight launches with SpaceX.
“That is a clean sweep again for all the deployments today,” said SpaceX commentator John Insprucker after the five satellites floated into orbit, one by one. (AFP)