EO·Atlas
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 |
| launch vehicle | Rockot with Breeze-KM upper stage |
| 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 | No |
| archive depth years | 15 |
| current geographic priority | Global |
Supply chain position
carries instrument K-band Ranging Instrument (KBR)
carries instrument SuperSTAR Accelerometer
operated by National Aeronautics and Space Administration
launched on Rockot with Breeze-KM upper stage
produces data product JPL GRACE and GRACE-FO Mascon RL06.3Mv04
predecessor of CHAMP
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
How to cite this page
Plain text
GRACE. EO-Atlas, SpectraWorks B.V. https://eo-atlas.org/missions/grace (CC BY 4.0)
BibTeX
@misc{eoatlas:missions:grace,
title = {GRACE},
author = {{EO-Atlas}},
publisher = {SpectraWorks B.V.},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
url = {https://eo-atlas.org/missions/grace}
}