Seasat Spacecraft Rendering, 11 April 1978. [Description from Photolab data base.]. On June 26, 1978 an experimental satellite called Seasat was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base. Its purpose was to study Earth and its seas from about 500 miles above Earth in a nearly polar orbit, using instruments that were originally created to study other planets. Seasat used synthetic aperture radar, a radar scatterometer, a radar altimeter, and a microwave radiometer to gather data. It returned highly detailed radar images of land surfaces and the instruments measured wind speed and direction, ocean surface and wave heights, surface temperatures, and sea ice cover. Seasat provided valuable information about ocean circulation, the topography of the ocean floor, and links between the oceans and climate. After more than three months of data collection, an electrical short caused its power system to fail. Many instruments and satellites in later decades built upon the technology used in Seasat: Topex/Poseidon, Jason, NASA Scatterometer, Quikscat, SeaWinds, Shuttle Imaging Radar, and radar systems on the Magellan and Cassini spacecraft. The artwork above is by artist Ken Hodges, who painted many different spacecraft for JPL before computer animation became widely used for publicity and outreach. The 24"x28" painting (gouache on watercolor board) is in the JPL Archives artwork collection. Seasat A will become the first spacecraft dedicated to oceanographic studies. The science of oceanography began more than 100 years ago with the sailing of HMS Challenger. Challenger's round-the-world trip became the model for oceanographic voyagers. Seasat A will be launched into a polar orbit from which it can examine 95 percent of the world's oceans every 36 hours. It will attempt to prove the concept of ocean survey using microwave sensors. The Seasat project is managed for NASA by Jet Propulsion Laboratory. [Caption from released photo.].
