A satellite backed by billionaire Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos has been lost in space while carrying out an important climate change mission, New Zealand officials said yesterday.
Designed to measure greenhouse gas emissions with “unprecedented resolution,” the MethaneSAT space probe was also funded by Wellington and the US-based Environmental Defense Fund.
Plagued with technical problems, the satellite recently stopped responding to its Earth-bound controllers.
Photo: AP
“Clearly, this is a disappointing development,” New Zealand Space Agency deputy head Andrew Johnson said. “As those who work in the space sector know, space is inherently challenging, and every attempt — successful or not — pushes the boundaries of what we know and what we’re capable of.”
The Environmental Defense Fund, which led the project, said it was “difficult news,” but would not be the end of its methane-tracking efforts.
MethaneSAT was designed to measure emissions of the potent greenhouse gas, which fuels climate change by trapping heat in the planet’s atmosphere. It has proven notoriously difficult to get accurate estimates of the methane emissions belched out by oil and gas projects around the globe.
“It was one of the most advanced methane tracking satellites in space, measuring methane emissions in oil and gas producing regions across the world,” the MethaneSAT team said.
Project lead Steven Hamburg said initial data gleaned by the satellite was “remarkable.”
“Recent measurements in the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico revealed emissions three to five times higher than estimated by the US Environmental Protection Agency, while emissions observed in the South Caspian region are over 10 times higher than reported,” Hamburg wrote on LinkedIn.
MethaneSAT was launched into space in March last year on the back of a Space Exploration Technologies rocket fired from California. Controllers first lost contact with the satellite on June 20, the MethaneSAT team said in a statement.
They on Monday confirmed that it had lost all power and was “likely not recoverable.”
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
CONFIDENCE BOOSTER: ’After parkour ... you dare to do a lot of things that you think only young people can do,’ a 67-year-old parkour enthusiast said In a corner of suburban Singapore, Betty Boon vaults a guardrail, crawls underneath a slide, executes forward shoulder rolls and scales a steep slope, finishing the course to applause. “Good job,” the 69-year-old’s coach cheers. This is “geriatric parkour,” where about 20 retirees learned to tackle a series of relatively demanding exercises, building their agility and enjoying a sense of camaraderie. Boon, an upbeat grandmother, said learning parkour has aided her confidence and independence as she ages. “When you’re weak, you will be dependent on someone,” she said after sweating it out with her parkour classmates in suburban Toa Payoh,
Chinese dissident artist Gao Zhen (高兟), famous for making provocative satirical sculptures of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東), was tried on Monday over accusations of “defaming national heroes and martyrs,” his wife and a rights group said. Gao, 69, who was detained in 2024 during a visit from the US, faces a maximum three-year prison sentence, said his wife, Zhao Yaliang (趙雅良), and Shane Yi, a researcher at the Chinese Human Rights Defenders group which operates outside the nation. The closed-door, one-day trial took place at Sanhe City People’s Court in Hebei Province neighboring the capital, Beijing, and ended without a
‘TOXIC CLIMATE’: ‘I don’t really recognize Labour anymore... The idea that you can implement far-right ideas in order to stop the far right is nonsense,’ a protester said Tens of thousands of people on Saturday marched through central London to protest against the far right, weeks ahead of local elections and six months after Britain saw one of its largest far-right demonstrations. Organized by hundreds of civic groups, including trade unions, anti-racism campaigners and Muslim representative bodies, Saturday’s Together Alliance event was billed as the biggest in UK history to counter right-wing extremism. A separate pro-Palestinian march had also converged with the main rally. While organizers claimed 500,000 had turned out in total, the police gave a figure of about 50,000. Protesters carrying placards with slogans such as
RSS