Category: Operational news

The Jason-1 spacecraft entered safe mode on 28 February 2013 at 16:13:37 UT, while traversing the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA). Platform recovery operations (including DORIS) are now well underway and will be completed by Friday, 15 March.

Comprehensive diagnostics of the spacecraft by CNES and Thales Alenia Space (TAS) did not detect any permanent loss of redundancy, or any loss of single-string systems required to continue the science mission. Platform recovery operations (including DORIS) are now well underway and will be completed by Friday, 15 March.  The Jason-1 payload science instruments (altimeter, radiometer) will be turned on during the day on Monday, 18 March, and full science operations will resume later that day. The Jason-1 mission was interrupted during Geodetic Cycle 527.  Cycle 528 will be almost entirely lost.  Normal science operations will resume prior to Cycle 529, which begins on 19 March at 20:28 UT. Thierry Guinle & Glenn Shirtliffe
CNES & NASA/JPL Jason-1 Project Managers