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December 18, 1999
Web posted at: 3:31 p.m. EST (2031 GMT)
By Interactive Writer Amanda Barnett
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California (CNN) -- NASA on Saturday launched a $1.3 billion satellite that will enable scientists from the United States, Canada and Japan to conduct daily checkups on the health of planet Earth.
High winds threatened to scrub the liftoff, but the 10,700-pound Terra satellite went aloft aboard an Atlas 2 rocket about 11 a.m. (2 p.m. EST), moments before a launch window of some 40 minutes was to close.
Within minutes, the satellite dropped its rocket boosters as planned, separated from the main rocket and raced toward orbit, prompting a burst of applause from NASA controllers back on Earth.
NASA had delayed the liftoff from Thursday, when on-board computers detected a problem with only seconds remaining in the countdown. An automatic software check indicated that rocket's "power-on-internal" status was not confirmed. Mission technicians verified that Atlas power was on internal status.
Terra is the flagship of the Earth Observing System, a series of spacecraft that NASA plans to put in orbit to measure how Earth's oceans, air, land and people function together.
Terra project scientist Yoram Kaufman calls the mission the planetary equivalent of a house call and says it will "start the first comprehensive and well-deserved checkup of the planet."
Viewing Earth as a system
Unlike previous missions that focused on one aspect of the Earth's environment, Kaufman says Terra will use new instruments to allow scientists to "look on the Earth as a system."
Scientists from the around the world collaborated to identify key measurements that will be taken by the five instruments on board the satellite.
Some of the things Terra will monitor include changes in land cover, climate change, ozone and natural disasters such as wildfires, droughts and floods.
"This is a very complex living, changing climate," Kaufman
said.
Having a satellite with multiple instruments will give scientists a "fresh view that could never have been obtained before," he said.
Global effort to monitor Earth
The satellite will sweep the Earth every 100 minutes in a
near polar orbit. The data collected will be shared by
hundreds of scientists around the world.
According to Michael King, the senior U.S. project
scientist for the mission, Terra will go "from pole to pole"
to observe, document and study every aspect of Earth.
Scientist believe the satellite will help them understand how
Earth's climate will evolve and how best to manage the
planet's natural resources.
The five instruments on Terra:
ASTER: Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer. This instrument will take high resolution infrared images of the Earth. ASTER is a cooperative effort between NASA and Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry.
CERES: Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System. This device consists of two broadband scanning radiometers that will measure the Earth's radiation balance and the role
clouds play in maintaining that balance.
MISR: Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer. This is a new type of instrument that will let scientists view the Earth with cameras pointed at nine different angles.
MODIS: Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer. This instrument will view the entire surface of the Earth every one to two days, making observations of land and ocean
surface temperature, land surface cover, clouds, aerosols,
water vapor and fires.
MOPITT -- Measurements Of Pollution In The Troposphere. An instrument designed to study the lower atmosphere and
observe how it interacts with the land and ocean. MOPITT is
provided by stethoscopeguides Canada and will be managed by the Canadian
Space Agency.
Data from the Terra satellite will be downlinked by the
Tracking and Data Relay Satellites that are also used to
monitor space shuttles.
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RELATED SITES:
TERRA
ASTER
CERES
MISR
MODIS
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