NOTICE: Because this page had grown so large (~168K), I have split it into 14 pages (including this page for acronyms beginning with E and F). Some direct, named links will no longer work. If you are looking for information about a particular mission, please select the appropriate file from the following alphabetical listing. If you cannot find information on the mission you are looking for, you may find some information in the Pages with Information on Many Missions list.
EarthWatch, Inc.'s EarlyBird satellite was launched December 24, 1997 from Svobodny, Russia. Communications were lost December 28, 1997 as the result of an anomalous satellite undervoltage condition. They intend to launch the first QuickBird satellite in 2000.
The Edison proposal was not accepted by ESA. The Edison team has merged with the Darwin team.
See Nanosat.
Envisat-1 planned for launch in June of 1999 on an Ariane 5. See also POEM.
Also known as HEAO 2 (see HEAO).
My recollection is that early on, the EO missions were sometimes called "Earth Orbinting" but are now consistently called "Earth Observing." The EO-1 spacecraft is co-manifested with a second payload (SAC-C) being developed in Argentina. EO-1 will be launched on a Delta 7320 from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The launch is scheduled for October 17, 2000 (as of May 3, 2000). See also NMP for general information on the New Millenium Program.
The EO-2 mission, now cancelled, was a to be a Space Shuttle-based demonstration of wind sensing technology called SPARKLE. See also NMP for general information on the New Millenium Program.
The third NMP Earth Observing mission is called GIFTS.
EOS-ASTER -- Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer
EOS-MISR -- Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer
The Earth Probes are a series of low cost Earth Science missions. The three Earth Probes are TOMS/Earth Probe, NSCAT/ADEOS, and TRMM. As I understand it, there are no more plans for Earth Probes, as they have been replaced by the ESSP Program. See also EOS and MTPE.
Not to be confused with the Earth Resources Observation Systems (EROS) Data Center, a data management, systems development, and research field center for the U.S. Geological Survey.
ERS-1 (the first European Remote Sensing satellite) was put into orbit by Ariane in July 1991. Since then, day and night and even through the densest clouds, it has been using its three instruments to survey the structure of the planet's surface, taking radar images that reveal the smallest details and monitor changes. ERS-1 watches shorelines, ocean currents and the sea surface, monitors the growth of crops and vegetation, surveys and maps the polar icecaps and drift-ice, and even detects oil spills. No other satellite can compete with its capabilities in this respect. ERS-1 is making an important contribution to the study of our environment and of climate change.
Like ERS-1, ERS-2 will be equipped with all - weather radar and microwave instruments for measurements and imaging over land and sea. As opposed to optical systems requiring clear weather conditions, the ERS- 2s radar system is not impressed by cloudy skies or darkness. It will thus continue to observe regions which usually escape the eyes of optical satellites due to frequent cloud formation or fog. Typical zones are the oceans or the tropical rain forests. A new instrument onboard the ERS-2 is the Global Ozone Measuring Equipment (GOME) which will measure the amount and distribution of ozone and trace gases in the outer earth atmosphere. At the core of GOME is an optical measuring instrument which will determine how much solar radiation hits the ozone layer and how much is reflected by the earth surface back into space. Direct conclusions concerning the damage of the atmosphere can be drawn from this. ERS-2 was successfully launched on April 20, 1995.
The first satellite, ERTS 1, was launched on 7/23/72. The second satellite was launched on 1/22/75. Concurrently the name of the satellites and program was changed to emphasize its prime area of interest (land resources). The first two satellites were designated as Landsats 1 and 2. See Landsat for more information.
The first European scientific space programmes were carried out under the aegis of ESRO, which between 1968 and 1972 had seven satellites (IRIS, AURORAE, HEOS-1, BOREAS, HEOS-2, TD-1A, ESRO-4) launched on American rockets. All of these missions had other names except ESRO-4, which was put into orbit in November 1972 and studied temperature differences in the upper atmosphere over the poles and equator.
I currently don't have much information on these early operational polar orbiting weather satellites (1966 to 1969). See POES.
In March, 1997 NASA selected the initial two primary ESSP Missions, the Vegetation Canopy Lidar (VCL) and the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) through the first ESSP Announcement of Opportunity (AO). In addition to VCL and GRACE, the Chemistry and Circulation Occultation Mission (CCOSM) was selected as an alternate mission, to be implemented should one of the selected primary missions encounter serious, cost, schedule, or technical problems in their development phases.
Launched June 7, 1992 on a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral.
See also the Origins program.
The Japanese EXOS-D (also known as Akebono) Satellite was launched in March, 1989.
Launched in 1983.
On-going series of small missions for Astrophysics and Space Physics, including ACE, COBE, EUVE, FAST, FUSE, IMAGE, IUE, MAP, SAMPEX, SWAS, TRACE, WIRE, and XTE. The Explorer series includes the MIDEX (Middle-Sized Explorer) series and the SMEX (Small Explorer) series of missions. See also Explorer 1.
Launched January 31, 1958. Discovered the Van Allen Radiation Belts. Circled the Earth more than 58,000 times before re-entering the Earth's atmosphere over the South Pacific on March 31, 1970.
Launched August 21, 1996 on an Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus launch vehicle. The FAST launch window was only six weeks per year. The spacecraft was ready to go to the launch site in July 1994, but launch vehicle problems caused it to miss the 1994 and 1995 launch windows. See also EXPLORER and SMEX.
Planned U.S. Space Station, now replaced by plans for ISSA.
The Swedish satellite, FREJA, was launched 6 October, 1992 from Jiuquan satellite launch centre in the Gobi Desert, People's Republic of China. See also Astrid for the first use of the Freja-C generic microsatellite bus that has been developed by the Swedish Space Corporation in Solna.
One of Twenty-eight formal proposals for Discovery missions received by NASA in October 1994 in response to an August 1994 Announcement of Opportunity. This mission was not selected.
Scheduled for launch in late 1998.
According to an article in Aviation Week, China launched a short-lived FY-1 metsat in 1998 and again in 1990. A prelaunch explosion destroyed the FY-2 in April 1994.
Created September 19, 1996. Last update: July 31, 2000. Please see my Disclaimer and Web Policy page. Due to changing job assignments (effective in late 1997), I am no longer responsible for maintaining these pages, but will try correct problems when I can. Limited maintenance as recently as September 6, 2000 by Gordon Johnston:
Gordon.Johnston@hq.nasa.govThe world wide web uniform resource locator (URL) for this page is:
http://ranier.hq.nasa.gov/Sensors_page/MissionLinks/mlef.html
