Quick Facts
Mission Name
Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT)
Spacecraft
Dimensions
- Height of spacecraft bus and payload: 16.4 feet (5 meters)
- Solar panels: 48.8 feet (14.875 meters) in length, with an area of 335 square feet (31 square meters)
- Boom length between Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn) antennas: 33 feet (10 meters)
- Spacecraft launch mass, including onboard propellant: approximately 4,850 pounds (2,200 kilograms)
SWOT team members attach the science payload to the main body of the spacecraft in a clean room at Thales Alenia Space in Cannes, France.
Payload Science Instruments
KaRIn; nadir altimeter; microwave radiometer; X-band system; precise orbit determination package that includes the Doppler Orbitography and Radiopositioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS) instrument, the laser reflector array (LRA), and the global positioning system (GPS) receiver.
Power
Two deployable motorized solar arrays provide 8 kilowatts; the spacecraft has a 1.5-kilowatt total power demand.
Battery
32-amp-hour battery
Propulsion
Eight 4.95-pound-force (22 newton) hydrazine thrusters
Mission
Launch Date
No earlier than Dec. 15, 2022
Launch Site
Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in Central California
Launch Vehicle
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket
Prime Mission Duration
Three years
Coverage of Earth
SWOT will cover the entire surface of Earth between 78 degrees south and 78 degrees north latitude at least once every 21 days.
This illustration shows how the SWOT spacecraft will collect data in crisscrossing paths around Earth.
Program
International Collaboration
SWOT was jointly developed by NASA and Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES), with contributions from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the UK Space Agency. For the flight system payload, NASA is providing the KaRIn instrument, a GPS science receiver, a laser retroreflector, a two-beam microwave radiometer, and NASA instrument operations. CNES is providing the DORIS system, the nadir altimeter, the radio-frequency subsystem that supports KaRIn (together with the UK Space Agency, which contributed a high-power switching subsystem), the satellite platform, and the ground-control segment. The CSA is providing a key part of the KaRIn high-power transmitter assembly. NASA is also providing the launch vehicle and associated launch services.
Budget
- NASA investment: $807.4 million
- CNES investment: 340 million euros (not including operations after launch)
- UK Space Agency Investment: £12.22 million
- CSA investment: CA$15.4 million
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