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  • Friday, April 26, 2024

SpaceX to Provide Falcon 9 Launch Services for NASA’s Surface Water Survey Satellite


falcon9-272x270Elon Musk’s SpaceX business has been chosen by NASA to help the space agency launch a satellite designed for global survey of Earth’s surface water.

NASA said Wednesday it expects the cost of launch service, spacecraft processing, payload integration and tracking, data and telemetry support for the Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission to reach $112 million.

The SWOT satellite is scheduled to launch from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California by April 2021.

NASA and its French counterpart will collaborate to build and manage spacecraft in efforts to measure how water bodies on the planet change over time as well as aid ocean circulation models and climate forecasting.

The satellite is designed to survey lakes, rivers, reservoirs and oceans worldwide from space at least twice every 21 days.

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