Thales Alenia Space prepared to ship the SWOT spacecraft from its factory in Cannes, France to Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The SWOT launch delay was needed to complete necessary prelaunch tasks, including transporting the satellite from Cannes, France to Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
NASA moved the SWOT launch from a previously scheduled November date to 2022-12-05, with the change announced on 2022-08-25.
SWOT will be the first satellite to be decommissioned at the end of its lifetime by making a controlled atmospheric re-entry in compliance with the French Space Operations Act that took effect in 2020.
SWOT is slated for launch no earlier than 2022-12-05 atop a Falcon 9 vehicle operated by SpaceX from Vandenberg Space Force Base.
Thales Alenia Space developed advanced altimeters for programs including SIRAL-2, Poseidon 4 on Sentinel-6/Jason-CS, AltiKa on the CNES/ISRO SARAL satellite, and KaRIn on the CNES/JPL SWOT satellite.
NASA selected SpaceX to launch SWOT in November 2016.
SWOT is scheduled to launch in November from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
NASA modified its Launch Services 2 contract with SpaceX on 2022-04-06 to change the upcoming launch of the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite from a new Falcon 9 booster to a previously flown Falcon 9 booster.
SWOT uses two radar antennas separated by a 10-meter mast to produce detailed maps of water surface elevation.
SWOT is scheduled to launch in November 2022 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base.
NASA awarded a contract for the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite in November 2016 at a value of $112,000,000 for an April 2021 Falcon 9 launch.