earth online
  • All Categories (67182)
  • Data (320)
  • News (715)
  • Missions (34)
  • Events (206)
  • Tools (61)
  • Activities (77)
  • Campaigns (106)
  • Documents (65613)

Heritage Missions

ESA's Heritage missions programme preserves 30 years of historical data from more than 45 satellite missions that are no longer operational.

  • Mission - Earth Explorers

    prompt photo

    GOCE

    ESA's Gravity field and Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) mission mapped Earth's geoid very accurately, opening a window into Earth's interior structure as well as the currents circulating within the depths of its oceans.

  • Mission - Heritage Missions

    prompt photo

    Envisat

    Envisat was ESA's successor to ERS. Envisat carried ten instruments aboard for a wide range of Earth observing fields. The mission was operational from 2002 to 2012.

  • Mission - Heritage Missions

    prompt photo

    ERS

    The ERS programme was composed of two missions, ERS-1 and ERS-2, which together observed the Earth for 20 years, from 1991 to 2011.

  • Mission - Heritage Missions

    prompt photo

    MOS-1/1B

    MOS-1 and 1B, Japan’s first marine observation satellites, were designed to monitor ocean currents, sea surface temperature, atmospheric water vapour, ocean chlorophyll levels, precipitation, and land vegetation.

  • Mission - Heritage Missions

    prompt photo

    KOMPSAT-1

    KOMPSAT-1 (Korean Multi-Purpose Satellite), also known as Arirang-1, was a South Korean Earth observation satellite which was launched on 21 December 1999. KOMPSAT-1 operated for eight years until satellite operations ceased on 30 December 2007 due to a loss of contact.

  • Mission - Heritage Missions

    prompt photo

    IRS-1C and IRS-1D

    The Indian Remote Sensing satellites IRS-1C and IRS-1D were identical Earth-imaging satellites operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation.

  • Mission - Heritage Missions

    prompt photo

    Landsat Series

    The Landsat Series is the world's longest running system of satellites for moderate-resolution optical remote sensing for land, coastal areas and shallow waters.

  • Mission - Heritage Missions

    prompt photo

    DMC First Generation

    The Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) is a constellation of microsatellites formerly coordinated by DMCii to provide frequent observations of the Earth for monitoring natural disasters.

  • Mission - Heritage Missions

    prompt photo

    Landsat-4 and Landsat-5

    The Landsat-4 and Landsat-5 missions continued the Landsat programme's goal of providing moderate-resolution optical remote sensing for land, coastal areas and shallow waters.

  • Mission - Heritage Missions

    prompt photo

    RADARSAT

    The RADARSAT programme consists of a pair of remote sensing satellites from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

  • Mission - Heritage Missions

    prompt photo

    NOAA POES

    NOAA's AVHRR sensor is carried on the POES mission, a constellation of polar orbiting weather satellites.

  • Mission - Heritage Missions

    prompt photo

    Landsat-1 to Landsat-3

    The Landsat-1 to 3 satellites were the first in the United States' Landsat programme, dedicated to monitoring the Earth's land mass.

  • Mission - Heritage Missions

    prompt photo

    IRS-P6 (ResourceSat-1)

    IRS-P6 (also known as ResourceSat-1) launched on 17 October 2003 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre by the Indian PSLV-C5, and came to an end on 30 September 2013.

  • Mission - Heritage Missions

    prompt photo

    GEOSAT

    The GEOSAT series consists of GEOSAT-1 and GEOSAT-2 missions. They are Earth imaging satellites. GEOSAT-2, a high resolution satellite, became the first European fully-private satellite capable of providing sub-metric multi-spectral imagery.

  • Mission - Heritage Missions

    prompt photo

    SPOT

    The SPOT (from French "Satellite pour l'Observation de la Terre") series of missions has been supplying high-resolution, wide-area optical imagery since 1986.

  • Mission - Heritage Missions

    prompt photo

    SPOT 7

    SPOT 7 (also known as Azersky), like all of the other SPOT missions, was aimed at supplying high-resolution, wide-area optical imagery.

  • Mission - Heritage Missions

    prompt photo

    SPOT 5

    SPOT 5, like all the SPOT missions, was aimed at supplying high-resolution, wide-area optical imagery.

  • Mission - Heritage Missions

    prompt photo

    SPOT 4

    SPOT 4, like all the SPOT missions, was aimed at supplying high-resolution, wide-area optical imagery.

  • Mission - Heritage Missions

    prompt photo

    SPOT 3

    SPOT 3, like all the SPOT missions, was aimed at supplying high-resolution, wide-area optical imagery.

  • Mission - Heritage Missions

    prompt photo

    SPOT 2

    SPOT 2, like all the SPOT missions, was aimed at supplying high-resolution, wide-area optical imagery.