The Seasat mission was designed to demonstrate the feasibility of global satellite monitoring of oceanographic phenomena and to help determine the requirements for an operational ocean remote sensing satellite system. The mission only lasted 106 days and ended on 10 October 1978.

NASA began planning for the mission in 1972, the first multi-sensor spacecraft, dedicated specifically to ocean observations. Specific objectives were to collect data on sea-surface winds, sea surface temperatures, wave heights, ocean topography, internal waves, atmospheric water, and sea ice properties.

Requirements for Seasat were generated by a User Working Group (UWG), which included the Office of the Oceanographer of the U.S. Navy, Fleet Numerical Weather Center, Navy Surface Weapons Center, Naval Research Laboratory, the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), the Office of Naval Research, and the Navy/NOAA Joint Ice Center. NOAA was represented on the UWG by the many NOAA laboratories around the United States, including the NOAA Atlantic Oceanic Marine Laboratory (AOML), the NOAA weather centre, the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, and NOAA's Marine Fisheries office. The Defense Mapping Agency, United States Geological Survey (USGS), the US Coast Guard, the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture (AgriStars programme) were also represented on the UWG.

The spacecraft was designed and developed by LMSC (Lockheed Missiles and Space Company) as prime contractor and by Ball Aerospace Systems. The satellite utilised the Agena upper stage to provide satellite bus functions, including power, telemetry (S-band), attitude control, and command and control functions. A sensor package containing the mission's five experiments was attached to the Agena, as were the experiments' antenna systems. Seasat was three-axis stabilised using momentum wheels and horizon sensors. The vehicle was oriented with the SAR and other antennas remaining nadir pointing and the Agena rocket nozzle and solar panels zenith pointing.

Seasat was placed in a geocentric Sun-synchronous orbit.

The Seasat mission was controlled from the real-time mission operations facility located at NASA/GSFC. Spacecraft data were received and recorded by the tracking stations of STDN (Spaceflight Tracking Data Network) and transmitted to GSFC. There, data were sorted, merged, time tagged, and recorded on magnetic tape, which were then shipped to the IDPS (Instrument Data Processing System ) at JPL.

Learn more about Seasat from these related websites:

• Seasat on NASA/ASF website*
• Seasat on the eoPortal*

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