WASHINGTON — A privately funded satellite designed to measure methane emissions has failed after only a little more than a year in orbit.
The MethaneSAT project announced July 1 that it has lost contact with the spacecraft of the same name on June 20. “After pursuing all options to restore communications, we learned this morning that the satellite has lost power, and that it is likely not recoverable,” the project stated.
MethaneSAT was a project spearheaded by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) to operate a satellite to track emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. Development of the spacecraft was supported by the Bezos Earth Fund, which provided $100 million to EDF, as well as the New Zealand Space Agency, which contributed $16 million and established a mission control center for MethaneSAT.
The 350-kilogram MethaneSAT launched in March 2024 on SpaceX’s Transporter-10 rideshare mission. The spacecraft was designed to operate for at least five years and the project had not publicly reported any problems with the spacecraft before this anomaly.
MethaneSAT used a Saturn-class bus from Blue Canyon Technologies. The spacecraft’s infrared spectrometers, used for tracking methane, were built by BAE Systems, which also handled integration and testing as well as commissioning support after launch.
The project provided no additional details about the loss of the satellite beyond that it was “conducting a thorough investigation into the loss of communication” and would share the results when complete.
“We have been made aware of the loss of communications with the MethaneSAT spacecraft,” BAE Systems said in a statement to SpaceNews, noting that the instruments had been working “beyond expectations” since launch. “While we did not develop the spacecraft bus or communications system, we are standing by to support our customer if needed.”
A spokesperson for RTX, the parent company of Blue Canyon Technologies, referred questions about the spacecraft anomaly to MethaneSAT.
The MethaneSAT project said its work to track methane emissions will continue despite the loss of the satellite, but did not announce plans to replace it. It would instead continue processing data from the spacecraft and leverage the hardware and software developed for it.
“EDF and MethaneSAT remain firmly committed to our core purpose of turning data into action to protect the climate, including reducing methane emissions from the global oil and gas industry,” the project stated.
Other organizations and companies are now providing data on methane and other greenhouse gas emissions. Canadian company GHGSat operates a fleet of 14 satellites, including two launched on the Transporter-14 rideshare mission June 24. The company says it has the world’s largest network of satellites devoted to tracking methane emissions and makes its data available to NASA through the agency’s Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition program.
The nonprofit group Carbon Mapper tracks greenhouse gas emissions using data from Tanager spacecraft operated by Planet. In March, the California Air Resources Board awarded Carbon Mapper a three-year, $95 million contract to disseminate data on methane emissions collected by those spacecraft.