missions

GRACE

Missions → CHAMP

GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) was a joint NASA and DLR gravity mission launched on 17 March 2002 ^[1]^[2]. It flew two spacecraft in tandem around Earth and measured changes in their separation with microwave K-band ranging, GPS receivers, and onboard accelerometers to derive changes in Earth's gravity field ^[2]. The science mission ended on 12 October 2017 after more than 15 years of operations ^[2]^[3]. GRACE observations support monthly mass-change products used for ice sheets, terrestrial water storage, ocean mass, groundwater, and solid-Earth studies ^[2].

Full specification

All fields

current status	ended
operator	National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Launched	2002-03-17
actual end of life	2017-10-12
orbit type	Twin near-polar low Earth orbiters separated by about 220 km
tasking supported	false
archive depth years	15
current geographic priority	Global
Last updated	2026-06-08
claim status	agency-sourced

Where this fits, supply chain

Compositional position

this ——— K-band Ranging Instrument (KBR) payload

this ——— SuperSTAR Accelerometer payload

this ——— JPL GRACE and GRACE-FO Mascon RL06.3Mv04 data product

CHAMP ——— this successor

JPL GRACE and GRACE-FO Mascon RL06 Processing Chain ——— this related

Satellite gravimetry → demonstrated K-band Ranging Instrument (KBR)

Satellite gravimetry → demonstrated SuperSTAR Accelerometer

Sources

[1]GRACE mission, NASA JPLagency doc-2026-06-08
[2]Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, PO.DAACagency doc-2026-06-08
[3]Prolific Earth Gravity Satellites End Science Mission, NASA JPLoperator press2017-10-272026-06-08

Cite https://eo-atlas.org/missions/grace Markdown twin → Field definitions →