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Introduction

Media Services

Quick Facts

Mission

Management

Appendix

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QUICK FACTS

One of the GRACE-FO satellites in a clean room.

GRACE Follow-On in a clean room
Image credit: Airbus DS GmbH/A. Ruttloff

SPACECRAFT

Size: 10 feet, 3 inches (3.123 meters) long, 2 feet, 6.7 inches (0.78 meters) high, 6 feet, 4.5 inches (1.943 meters) wide at bottom, 2 feet, 3.3 inches (0.69 meters) wide at top

Mass: 1,323.2 pounds (600.2 kilograms) each, including onboard propellant at launch

Power: Panels of gallium arsenide solar cells mounted on satellite's top and side exterior surfaces

Batteries: 78-ampere-hour battery consisting of lithium-ion cells

Instruments: Microwave instrument, accelerometer, laser ranging interferometer (technology demonstration), laser retro-reflector

Artist's concept of GRACE-FO orbiting Earth

Illustration of GRACE-FO orbiting Earth
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

MISSION

Launch: No earlier than May 19, 2018

Prime mission: Five years

Orbit altitude: Approximately 305 miles (490 kilometers)

Orbit's inclination to Earth's equator: 89 degrees (near-polar)

Orbit duration: Approximately 90 minutes

Orbits per day: Approximately 15

Velocity: Approximately 16,800 mph (7.5 km/s)

Separation between spacecraft: 137 miles (220 kilometers) optimal separation, plus or minus 31 miles (50 kilometers)

LAUNCH

Launch is scheduled for no earlier than May 19, 2018, from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle as a rideshare with five Iridium NEXT communications satellites.

BUDGET

NASA investment: Approximately $430 million

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