MethaneSAT

The MethaneSAT program was started by MethaneSAT, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Environmental Defence Fund (EDF), with the goal of providing global high resolution data regarding methane emissions from oil and gas facilities. In January 2020, MethaneSAT announced that the spacecraft will be built using the Blue Canyon Technologies X-SAT satellite bus, with the spacecraft's methane sensing spectrometer being provided by Ball Aerospace & Technologies.[2]

In November 2019, the New Zealand Space Agency joined the program, committing $26 million to the program. The agency will also build a mission control center for the flight in New Zealand, although no specific location within the country has been selected. NZSA will also take part in launch operations and may contribute to the scientific payload.[3]

Dr. Sara Mikaloff-Fletcher, a NIWA carbon cycle expert, has been named as the mission's lead scientist.[4]

On 13 January 2021, the nonprofit MethaneSAT LLC announced that it had signed a contract with SpaceX to deliver the 350 kg MethaneSAT into orbit aboard a Falcon 9 rocket with a launch window opening on 1 October 2022.[5] Dr. Steven Hamburg, MethaneSAT project co-lead stated: “SpaceX offers the readiness and reliability we need to deliver our instrument into orbit and begin streaming emissions data as soon as possible. We couldn’t ask for a more capable launch partner.”[5] The spacecraft will carry a high performance spectrometer methane sensing system, which will allow the spacecraft to take high resolution measurements of global methane emissions from roughly 50 major regions across Earth.

Ball Aerospace and Blue Canyon Technologies completed an intensive technology review of their respective contributions to the mission in early 2020.[6]

MethaneSAT is designed to fill a critical gap between existing missions by providing higher sensitivity and better spatial resolution than global mapping instruments like TROPOMI, combined with a much wider field of view than point-source systems like GHGSat.[5] Measurements taken by MethaneSAT will enable both companies and governments to locate, quantify and track methane emissions from oil and gas operations worldwide, and use that data to reduce emissions of the highly potent greenhouse gas.[5] MethaneSAT is building an advanced data platform to automate complex analytics required to determine the amount of methane that is being released across a landscape, transforming a process that now takes scientists weeks or months into one that provides users with actionable data in just a few days. Making methane emissions data for oil and gas infrastructure across the globe freely available will create unprecedented transparency, giving stakeholders and the public a vital window on the progress toward emission reduction goals. MethaneSAT plans to stream its data online at no charge for non-commercial users.[5] The Bezos Earth Fund, founded by Jeff Bezos, announced a $100 million grant to EDF that will support critical work including completion and launch of MethaneSAT.