ESA's water mission on track for launch
Following word from Eurockot that launch of the Earth Explorer SMOS satellite can take place between July and October this year, ESA, CNES and the prime contractor Thales Alenia Space are now making detailed preparations for the last crucial steps before ESA's water mission is placed in orbit.
The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite has been in storage at Thales Alenia Space's facilities in Cannes, France since May last year awaiting for a third stage of the Rockot launcher to be assigned to the mission and a slot given for launch from the Russian Plesetsk Cosmodrome 800 km north of Moscow. All being well, SMOS will be the second of ESA's Earth Explorer missions to launch after the Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE), which is planned for launch on 16 March 2009.
SMOS is the first mission dedicated to measuring both the moisture in soil and salt in the surface waters of the oceans. Mapping soil moisture and ocean salinity, ESA's water mission will further our understanding of the water cycle – key to advancing research into global and regional climate change as well as weather and extreme-event forecasting.
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