NASA has started live launch coverage of the international Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission! A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands poised for liftoff at Vandenberg Space Force Base’s Space Launch Complex-4 East in California, ready to send SWOT on the first mission to observe nearly al
00:07:06 1st stage landing burn start00:52:28 SWOT deploys
NASA and CNES are collaborating to make the first global survey of Earth’s surface fresh water and study fine-scale ocean currents with a new mission called SWOT, or Surface Water and Ocean Topography. SWOT will collect data on the height of Earth’s salt and fresh water – including oceans, lakes, and rivers – enabling researchers to track the location of water over time, which will help measure the effects of climate change.
On Thursday, teams held a delta launch readiness review to evaluate data collected on two of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket engines and determined the Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission is a “go” for launch. Technicians completed data reviews and the analysis of the presence of moisture in the engines, which was discovered during routine inspections on December 14.
SWOT will provide NASA’s first global survey of water on Earth’s surface, measuring the elevation of water in major lakes, rivers, and wetlands while observing ocean features in higher definition than ever before. The data gathered by SWOT will help researchers better understand the availability of Earth’s freshwater resources, track regional sea level changes, monitor coastal processes, and more.
SWOT is a collaboration between NASA and the French space agency Centre National d’Etudes Spatial , with contributions from the Canadian Space Agency and United Kingdom Space Agency .
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