MethaneSAT, a satellite launched for $88 million in March 2024 to monitor methane emissions, has lost power and contact with mission control, leading to its likely irrecoverable state. The Environmental Defense Fund reported that an investigation into the loss of communication is ongoing. Despite the loss, MethaneSAT collected nearly a year's worth of impressive data showing the capability of advanced spectrometer instruments to accurately trace emissions from space. Methane emissions, significantly contributing to global warming, have been underestimated by various gas companies according to recent research.
"It is likely not recoverable," the EDF said in a statement Tuesday.
The just under a year's worth of data it managed to collect was "magnificent," Steven Hamburg, chief scientist at the EDF, told the New York Times.
We set out in this first year to demonstrate what was possible, that we could think about direct measurement of greenhouse gases in a way that we had never been able to do before," Hamburg added. "And I think we demonstrated that."
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