The development of Hurricane Dennis late last month was tracked by the Orbital Sciences-built SeaStar satellite. The satellite, launched in 1997, uses a Hughes-built instrument - the Sea-Viewing Wide Field Sensor (SeaWiFS) - which is providing multi-spectral ocean colour data to NASA under a five-year contract for the space agency's Earth Probes programme. It was the first time that the US Government purchased global environmental data from a private-sector designed and operated remote sensing spacecraft.
Source: Flight International
