A satellite financed by the American billionaire Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, was lost in space while carrying out an important mission about climate change, New Zealand officials announced Wednesday. Designed to measure greenhouse gas emissions with an “unprecedented resolution”, Methanesat’s space research was also financed by Wellington and the Environmental Defense Fund, an NGO -based NGOs in the United States.
In the control of technical problems, the satellite has stopped responding to its controllers on Earth. They lost contact with him on June 20, Methanesat team said in a statement. They confirmed that the satellite had lost all its power last Monday and that it was “probably unrecoverable.” “Obviously, this is a disappointing development,” said Andrew Johnson, an official of the New Zealand space agency.
“The space is intrinsically difficult”
“Like those who work in the space sector, the space is (an environment) intrinsically difficult, and every attempt, successful or not, rejects the borders of what we know and what we are capable of.” The Environmental Defense Fund, which framed the project, said it was “difficult news”, but that it would not end its efforts to monitor methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
Methanesat was designed to measure methane emissions that feed climate change by keeping heat in the planet’s atmosphere. “It was one of the most advanced methane monitoring satellites in space, which measured methane emissions in oil and gas producing regions worldwide,” said the Methanesat team.
The satellite was launched in space in March 2024 at the back of a California Spacex rocket.
Source: BFM TV
