Status Reports

Terra Open for Business
April 19, 2000 — Terra, NASA's premier Earth Observing System satellite, is officially "open for business." First glimpse images of North America, the Indian subcontinent, and "spring greening" were among the observations from Terra's scientific instruments presented today at a NASA press briefing.

Terra Reaches Final Orbit
March 10, 2000 — After eleven weeks of on-orbit checkout and verification and a series of orbital ascent maneuvers, the Terra Spacecraft reached its final orbit on February 23. Terra's spacecraft subsystems continue to perform flawlessly, with almost all systems now in their operational science mode.

Terra Orbit Ascent Maneuvers and Activation Proceeding
February 1, 2000 — Terra is continuing with instrument activation. The MODIS instrument opened its space view door as well as performed its first recorder dump of data. Terra has also continued its orbit ascent maneuvers.

Terra Continues Outgassing, Orbit Maneuvers
January 20, 2000 — "All of the on-board instruments are continuing their outgas period," said Kevin Grady, Terra Project Manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "The spacecraft is presently flying under the control of the spacecraft controls computer in its normal mission control mode, with the high gain antenna being used for both S- and Ku-band dumps."

Terra Continues Activation
January 6, 2000 — Activation of the Terra spacecraft is continuing at a brisk pace. At weeks beginning, the spacecraft was placed back in the normal control mode (had been in earth sensor based acquisition mode during Y2K rollover), with communications via the high gain antenna. MOPITT and MODIS were powered-on, joining CERES and MISR which were powered-on before the New Year.

Terra Operations Resume After "Safe-Hold"
December 29, 1999 — Terra has resumed normal operations after entering a "safe-hold" on the fourth day of the mission. Due to the unique location of the Sun during the winter solstice, which Terra uses to navigate, a computational error resulted in the "safe-hold." Terra's software will be updated to avoid future solstice-related errors.

Terra Activation Continues
December 23, 1999 — "Overall the mission is going extremely well, with the performance of both the team and the spacecraft superb," said Kevin Grady, Terra project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "All of the activities planned to be completed by mission day 5 have now been accomplished, with the exception of the turn-on of one of the instrument outgas heaters. A number of spacecraft components have been powered-on over the past three days, and the performance of these have been excellent."

Terra Activation Begins
December 22, 1999 — Activation of the Terra spacecraft, which was launched on Saturday, December 18th, is continuing, with the mission going extremely well. A number of spacecraft components have been powered-on over the past two days, and the performance has been nominal.

Terra Launch Successful!
December 18, 1999 — A new generation of Earth science — one that studies the Earth's land, oceans, air, ice and life as a total global system — began with a picture perfect launch this afternoon of the "Terra" spacecraft from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Formerly known as "EOS AM-1," the Terra spacecraft lifted off at 1:57 p.m. EST on an Atlas IIAS rocket.

For more information:
· About Terra
· Terra Animations
· Terra Web Site