NASA Invites Media to View Launch of ICESat-2 from West Coast
7 August 2018 | NASA
The ICESat-2 mission will measure the changing height of Earth’s glaciers, ice sheets and sea ice, one laser pulse at a time, 10,000 laser pulses per second.
ICESat-2 will measure the height of our changing Earth, one laser pulse at a time, 10,000 laser pulses per second. The satellite will carry a single instrument, the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS), which measures the travel times of laser pulses to calculate the distance between the spacecraft and Earth’s surface. ICESat-2 will provide scientists with height measurements that create a global portrait of Earth’s third dimension, gathering data that can precisely track changes of terrain including glaciers, sea ice, forests and more.
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages development of the ICESat-2 mission, including mission systems engineering and mission operations on behalf of the agency’s Earth Science Division. Goddard also built and tested the ATLAS instrument. The ICESat-2 spacecraft was built and tested by Northrop Grumman in Gilbert, Arizona. United Launch Alliance of Centennial, Colorado, is providing the Delta II launch service. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy, is responsible for launch service acquisition, integration, analysis and launch management.
For more information about the ICESat-2 mission, visit:
Photo and video content for ICESat-2 is available at:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/Gallery/icesat2.html