ICESat-2
| ICESat-2 | |
|---|---|
| Type: | Earth observation satellite |
| Country: |
 United States
|
| Operator: |
 NASA
|
| COSPAR-ID : | 2018-070A |
| Mission dates | |
| Dimensions: | 1387 kg |
| Begin: | September 15, 2018, 13:02 UTC |
| Starting place: | Vandenberg AFB SLC-2 |
| Launcher: | Delta II 7320-10C |
| Status: | in orbit |
| Orbit data | |
| Rotation time : | 93.8 min |
| Orbit inclination : | 92.0 ° |
| Apogee height : | 473 km |
| Perigee height : | 466 km |
ICESat-2 is a project of the Goddard Space Flight Center of NASA and the successor to the earth observation satellite ICESat .
In August 2011, Orbital ATK was commissioned to develop and build the satellite. It is equipped with a lidar system that uses six beams of green laser light to measure the height profile of the polar ice caps .
The satellite was launched on September 15, 2018 with the last Delta II ; it has been operational since December 7, 2018. In the meantime, after the failure of ICESat in 2009, NASA had used aircraft to monitor the polar ice with Operation IceBridge .
Web links
Commons : ICESat-2 - collection of images, videos and audio files
- Official website
- Description at eoPortal (English)