Seasat
Seasat was NASA's pioneering ocean remote-sensing satellite, demonstrating a suite of sensors for sea-surface winds and temperature, waves, ocean topography, atmospheric liquid water and sea ice. Its payload combined a radar altimeter, synthetic-aperture radar, scatterometer, microwave radiometer and visible/infrared radiometer. The mission operated for 105 days before an electrical short circuit ended observations on October 10, 1978. Despite its short lifetime, Seasat established techniques that later ocean-observing missions developed into sustained scientific records.
Follow this mission
Alerts are unavailable because this mission is no longer active.
Identity
- Aliases
- SeasatSeasat ASeasat-1
- Name
- Seasat
- Status
- completed
Details
- Astronauts
- -
- Description
- Seasat was NASA's pioneering ocean remote-sensing satellite, demonstrating a suite of sensors for sea-surface winds and temperature, waves, ocean topography, atmospheric liquid water and sea ice. Its payload combined a radar altimeter, synthetic-aperture radar, scatterometer, microwave radiometer and visible/infrared radiometer. The mission operated for 105 days before an electrical short circuit ended observations on October 10, 1978. Despite its short lifetime, Seasat established techniques that later ocean-observing missions developed into sustained scientific records.
- Destination
- Near-circular, non-sun-synchronous near-polar Earth orbit at approximately 790 km altitude (108° inclination; 101-minute period)
- End Date
- 1978-10-10
- Launch Site
- Outcome
- Launched June 27, 1978, Seasat pioneered space-based remote sensing of the oceans with a suite of oceanographic sensors and technologies.
- Programs
- Start Date
- 1978-06-27
- Vehicle Families
Links
- Official Url
- https://science.nasa.gov/mission/seasat/
Assets & Meta
- Creation Time
- August 14, 2026 at 19:28:07 UTC
- Updated Time
- October 29, 2026 at 15:20:56 UTC
Other
- Affiliations
- Space Stations
- -
- Vehicles
- -