1986–2000: Stations, Global Partnerships and Flagship Observatories
TOPEX/Poseidon
Precision ocean-altimetry mission; foundational climate and ocean data.
Era 3 of 6 · full record in the catalog
- Launch
- year known only: 1992
- Lead / partner
- NASA / CNES
- Target
- Earth orbit
- Category
- Earth science
- Status
- Success
- Vehicle
- Ariane 42P
- Mass
- unknown
- Orbit / trajectory
- Geocentric
Why it happened
TOPEX/Poseidon flew during 1986–2000: Stations, Global Partnerships and Flagship Observatories, as part of NASA / CNES's work toward earth orbit. A sourced write-up of the context around this mission is still on the editorial queue; nothing here is invented to fill the gap.
The mission
The full narrative of this mission is pending research and writing. What is recorded so far: Precision ocean-altimetry mission; foundational climate and ocean data.
Results
Precision ocean-altimetry mission; foundational climate and ocean data.
Related missions
Sources & image credits
- NASA/JPL, via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · license: public-domain (source, checked 2026-08-23)
- Mission record: AntarikshPedia canonical dataset (data-sources/missions_timeline.md)
- Specifications reference: NASA NSSDCA Master Catalog
