Sensor · Spaceborne

Shuttle Laser Altimeter 1 (SLA-01)

Missions → STS-72 (Space Shuttle Endeavour) (Ended)

First Shuttle Laser Altimeter experiment. Flew on STS-72 (Space Shuttle Endeavour, January 1996). 1064 nm lidar demonstrating spaceborne laser altimetry techniques.

Sensor

The Shuttle Laser Altimeter 1 (SLA-01) was a 1064 nm full-waveform lidar built by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center to demonstrate spaceborne laser altimetry techniques. It flew aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour on mission STS-72. Mission dates are given as January 1996 in the NTRS pathfinder paper^[1] and as January 11-20, 1996 in the GSFC mission results publication.^[2] An orbital altitude of approximately 310 km and inclination of 28.45 degrees are reported in the GSFC results documentation.^[2] SLA-01 measured surface elevation over a range of terrain types including tropical forest canopy and geological surfaces, producing waveform data that demonstrated the feasibility of ranging to Earth's surface from orbit. The mission served as a pathfinder for subsequent spaceborne laser altimetry, and the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) on ICESat carried the technique into operational science.^[1]

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