PureNerdism

Space-X Jason-3 And Falcon Landing

Mission Overview
With this mission, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will deliver the Jason-3
satellite to low-Earth orbit for the U.S. National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA), French space agency Centre
National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and the European
Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites
(EUMETSAT).
The Jason-3 launch is targeted for a 10:42am PT launch on January
17, 2016 from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Air Force
Base, California. If all goes as planned, the Jason-3 satellite will be
deployed approximately an hour after launch. There is a back-up
launch opportunity on January 18 at 10:31am PT.
This mission also marks an experimental landing of the first stage on the SpaceX drone ship “Just Read
the Instructions”. The landing of the first stage is a secondary test objective.
Payload
Jason-3 is the newest satellite in a series designed to maintain long-term satellite altimetry
observations of global sea surface height. These data provide critical ocean information that
forecasters need to predict devastating hurricanes and severe weather before they arrive onshore.
Over the long term, Jason-3 will help track global sea level rise, an increasing threat to the resilience
of coastal communities and to the health of our environment.
Jason-3’s highly accurate altimetry measurements will be used for a variety of scientific, commercial
and operational applications, including:
 Hurricane intensity forecasting
 Surface wave forecasting for offshore operators
 Forecasting tides and currents for commercial shipping and ship routing
 Coastal forecasting for response to environmental problems like oil spills and harmful algal
blooms
 Coastal modeling crucial for marine mammal and coral reef research
 El Niño and La Niña forecasting
Jason-3 is the fourth mission in a U.S.-European series of satellite missions that measure the height
of the ocean surface. The mission will extend the time series of ocean surface topography
measurements (the hills and valleys of the ocean surface) begun by the TOPEX/Poseidon satellite
mission in 1992 and continuing through Jason-1 (launched in 2001) and the currently operating
OSTM/Jason-2 (launched in 2008) missions. These measurements provide scientists with critical
information about circulation patterns in the ocean and about both global and regional changes in
sea level and the climate implications of a warming world.