| Date: | 2008-12-17 00:28:00 | |
| Sender: | Frank Lemoine <Frank Lemoine <Frank.G.Lemoine@nasa.gov>> | |
| Subject: | [SLR-Mail] No. 1737: GFO-End of Mission and Decommissioning | |
| Author: | Frank Lemoine | |
| Content: | ******************************************************************************** SLR Electronic Mail 2008-12-17 00:28:00 UTC Message No. 1737 ******************************************************************************** Author: Frank Lemoine Subject: GFO-End of Mission and Decommissioning Subject: GFO-End of Mission and Decommissioning Subject: GFO-End of Mission and Decommissioning Dear Colleagues- This is to advise the decommissioning activities for GFO have no been completed. A series of orbit burns, between November 7 and November 25, 2008, totalling 65 minutes have exhausted the propellant on the spacecraft, and lowered the orbit from 785 km (near-circular) to a 783 x 456 km orbit. It is estimated the post mission lifetime will vary due to solar activity, but that the spacecraft will reenter the Earth´s atmosphere after 15 to 25 years. The GFO spacecraft was successfully tracked by the ILRS for ten years, and we now benefit from a time series of altimeter data more than eight years in length, which would not have been possible but for the SLR tracking. We are extremely grateful to the ILRS for their vigorous support and dedication to this mission. Over the course of the next months, we at GSFC will issue one final update of the precise orbits, making them commensurate and consistent in all respects with those presently available for Jason-1, Jason-2 and TOPEX/Poseidon. Sincerely, Frank Lemoine Nikita P. Zelensky Code 698, Planetary Geodynamics Laboratory NASA Goddard Space Flight Center From: Frank Lemoine ******************************************************************************** |