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Katherine Johnson’s mathematical calculations helped guide some of America’s most important early space missions while she confronted the racial and gender barriers faced by Black women in twentieth-century America.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
 An artist's rendering of DSCOVR satellite | |||||||||||||
| Names | DSCOVR Triana AlGoreSat | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mission type | Space weather | ||||||||||||
| Operator | NASA / NOAA | ||||||||||||
| COSPAR ID | 2015-007A | ||||||||||||
| SATCAT no. | 40390 | ||||||||||||
| Website | www | ||||||||||||
| Mission duration | 5 years (planned)[1] 11 years, 7 months, 29 days (elapsed) | ||||||||||||
| Spacecraft properties | |||||||||||||
| Bus | SMEX-Lite | ||||||||||||
| Manufacturer | Goddard Space Flight Center | ||||||||||||
| Launch mass | 570 kg (1,260 lb)[2] | ||||||||||||
| Dimensions | Undeployed: 1.4 × 1.8 m (4 ft 7 in × 5 ft 11 in) | ||||||||||||
| Power | 600 watts | ||||||||||||
| Start of mission | |||||||||||||
| Launch date | 11 February 2015, 23:03:42 UTC | ||||||||||||
| Rocket | Falcon 9 v1.1 | ||||||||||||
| Launch site | Cape Canaveral, SLC-40, Florida | ||||||||||||
| Contractor | SpaceX | ||||||||||||
| Entered service | 8 June 2015 | ||||||||||||
| Orbital parameters | |||||||||||||
| Reference system | Heliocentric orbit[1] | ||||||||||||
| Regime | Sun-Earth Lagrange point L1 | ||||||||||||
| Period | six-month | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
 DSCOVR logo Space Weather program | |||||||||||||
Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR; formerly known as Triana and unofficially as GoreSat)[3] is a United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) space weather, space climate, and Earth observation satellite. It was launched by SpaceX on a Falcon 9 v1.1 launch vehicle on 11 February 2015, from Cape Canaveral, Florida.[4] This is NOAA's first operational deep space satellite and became its primary system of warning Earth in the event of solar magnetic storms.[5]
DSCOVR was originally proposed as an Earth observation spacecraft positioned at the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange point, providing live video of the sunlit side of the planet through the Internet as well as scientific instruments to study climate change. Political changes in the United States resulted in the mission's cancellation, and in 2001 the spacecraft was placed into storage.
Proponents of the mission continued to push for its reinstatement, and a change in presidential administration in 2009 resulted in DSCOVR being taken out of storage and refurbished, and its mission was refocused to solar observation and early warning of coronal mass ejections while still providing Earth observation and climate monitoring. It launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle on 11 February 2015, and reached L1 on 8 June 2015, joining the list of objects orbiting at Lagrange points.
NOAA operates DSCOVR from its Satellite and Product Operations Facility in Suitland, Maryland. The acquired space data that allows for accurate weather forecasts are carried out in the Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado. Archival records are held by the National Centers for Environmental Information, and processing of Earth sensor data is carried out by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).[1]
DSCOVR began as a proposal in 1998 by then-Vice President Al Gore for the purpose of whole-Earth observation at the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange point, 1.5×106 km (0.93×106 mi) from Earth.[3][6] Originally known as Triana, named after Rodrigo de Triana, the first of Columbus's crew to sight land in the Americas, the spacecraft's original purpose was to provide a near-continuous view of the entire Earth and make that live image available via the Internet. Gore hoped not only to advance science with these images, but also to raise awareness of the Earth itself, updating the influential Blue Marble photograph that was taken by Apollo 17.[7] In addition to an imaging camera, a radiometer would take the first direct measurements of how much sunlight is reflected and emitted from the whole Earth (albedo). This data could constitute a barometer for the process of global warming. The scientific goals expanded to measure the amount of solar energy reaching Earth, cloud patterns, weather systems, monitor the health of Earth's vegetation, and track the amount of UV light reaching the surface through the ozone layer.
In 1999, NASA's Inspector General reported that "the basic concept of the Triana mission was not peer reviewed", and "Triana's added science may not represent the best expenditure of NASA's limited science funding".[8] Members of the U.S. Congress asked the National Academy of Sciences whether the project was worthwhile. The resulting report, released March 2000, stated that the mission was "strong and scientifically vital".[9]
The Bush administration put the project on hold shortly after George W. Bush's inauguration in January 2001.[6] Triana was removed from its original launch opportunity on STS-107 (the ill-fated Columbia mission in 2003).[3] The US$150 million[3] spacecraft was placed into nitrogen blanketed storage at Goddard Space Flight Center in November 2001 and remained there for the duration of the Bush administration.[10] NASA renamed the spacecraft Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) in 2003 in an attempt to regain support for the project,[3] but the mission was formally terminated by NASA in 2005.[11]
In November 2008, funded by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Air Force, the spacecraft was removed from storage and underwent testing to determine its viability for launch.[12][13] After the Obama administration took presidency in 2009, that year's budget included US$9 million marked for refurbishment and readiness of the spacecraft,[14] resulting in NASA refurbishing the EPIC instrument and recalibrating the NISTAR instrument.[15] Al Gore used part of his book Our Choice (2009) as an attempt to revive debate on the DSCOVR payload. The book mentions legislative efforts by senators Barbara Mikulski and Bill Nelson to get the spacecraft launched.[16] In February 2011, the Obama administration attempted to secure funding to re-purpose the DSCOVR spacecraft as a solar observatory to replace the aging Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) spacecraft, and requested US$47.3 million in the 2012 fiscal budget toward this purpose.[11] Part of this funding was to allow the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) to construct a coronal mass ejection imager for the spacecraft, but the time required would have delayed DSCOVR's launch and it was ultimately not included.[1][11] NOAA allocated US$2 million in its 2011 budget to initiate the refurbishment effort, and increased funding to US$29.8 million in 2012.[3]
In 2012, the Air Force allocated US$134.5 million to procure a launch vehicle and fund launch operations, both of which were awarded to SpaceX for their Falcon 9 rocket.[3][17] In September 2013, NASA cleared DSCOVR to proceed to the implementation phase targeting an early 2015 launch,[18] which ultimately took place on 11 February 2015.[12] NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is providing management and systems engineering to the mission.
In the 2017 documentary, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, Al Gore speaks of the history of the DSCOVR spacecraft and its relation to climate change.[19]
DSCOVR is built on the SMEX-Lite spacecraft bus and has a launch mass of approximately 570 kg (1,260 lb). The main science instrument sets are the Sun-observing Plasma Magnetometer (PlasMag) and the Earth-observing NIST Advanced Radiometer (NISTAR) and Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC). DSCOVR has two deployable solar arrays, a propulsion module, boom, and antenna.[20]
The propulsion module had 145 kg of hydrazine propellant at launch.[21]
From its vantage point, DSCOVR monitors variable solar wind conditions, provides early warning of approaching coronal mass ejections and observes phenomena on Earth, including changes in ozone, aerosols, dust and volcanic ash, cloud height, vegetation cover and climate. At its Sun-Earth L1 location it has a continuous view of the Sun and of the sunlit side of the Earth. After the spacecraft arrived on-site and entered its operational phase, NASA began releasing near-real-time images of Earth through the EPIC instrument's website.[22] DSCOVR takes full-Earth pictures about every two hours and is able to process them faster than other Earth observation satellites.[23]
The spacecraft is in a looping halo orbit around the Sun–Earth Lagrange point L1 in a six-month period, with a spacecraft–Earth–Sun angle varying from 4° to 15°.[24][25]
The Plasma-Magnetometer (PlasMag) measures solar wind for space weather predictions. It can provide early warning detection of solar activity that could cause damage to existing satellite systems and ground infrastructure. Because solar particles reach L1 about an hour before Earth, PlasMag can provide a warning of 15 to 60 minutes before a coronal mass ejection (CME) arrives. It does this by measuring "the magnetic field and the velocity distribution functions of the electron, proton and alpha particles (helium nuclei) of solar wind".[26] It has three instruments:[26]
The Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) takes images of the sunlit side of Earth for various Earth science monitoring purposes in ten different channels from ultraviolet to near-infrared. Ozone and aerosol levels are monitored along with cloud dynamics, properties of the land, and vegetation.[29]
EPIC has an aperture diameter of 30.5 cm (12.0 in), a focal ratio of 9.38, a field of view of 0.61°, and an angular sampling resolution of 1.07 arcseconds. Earth's apparent diameter varies from 0.45° to 0.53° full width. Exposure time for each of the 10 narrowband channels (317, 325, 340, 388, 443, 552, 680, 688, 764, and 779 nm) is about 40 ms. The camera produces 2048 × 2048 pixel images, but to increase the number of downloadable images to ten per hour the resolution is averaged to 1024 × 1024 on board. The final resolution is 25 km/pixel (16 mi/pixel).[29]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology Advanced Radiometer (NISTAR) was designed and built between 1999 and 2001 by NIST in Gaithersburg, MD and Ball Aerospace & Technologies in Boulder, Colorado. NISTAR measures irradiance of the sunlit face of the Earth. This means that NISTAR measures if the atmosphere of Earth is taking in more or less solar energy than it is radiating back towards space. This data is to be used to study changes in Earth's radiation budget caused by natural and human activities.[30]
Using NISTAR data, scientists can help determine the impact that humanity is having on the atmosphere of Earth and make the necessary changes to help balance the radiation budget.[31] The radiometer measures in four channels:
The DSCOVR launch was conducted by launch provider SpaceX using their Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket. The launch of DSCOVR took place on 11 February 2015, following two scrubbed launches. It took DSCOVR 110 days from when it left Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS), Florida, to reach its target destination 1.5×106 km (0.93×106 mi) away from Earth orbiting the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange point.[32][33]
| Attempt | Planned | Result | Turnaround | Reason | Decision point | Weather go (%) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 Feb 2015, 11:10:00 pm | Scrubbed | — | Technical | (T02:40:00) | >90 | Range issues: tracking,[34] first-stage video transmitter issues noted |
| 2 | 10 Feb 2015, 11:04:49 pm | Scrubbed | 1 day 23 hours 55 minutes | Weather | 80 | Upper-level winds at the launch pad exceeded 100 knots (190 km/h; 120 mph) at 7,600 m (24,900 ft) | |
| 3 | 11 Feb 2015, 11:03:42 pm | Success | 0 days 23 hours 59 minutes | >90 |
On 6 July 2015, DSCOVR returned its first publicly released view of the entire earthlight side of Earth from 1,475,207 km (916,651 mi) away, taken by the EPIC instrument. EPIC provides a daily series of Earth images, enabling the first-time study of daily variations over the entire globe. The images, available 12 to 36 hours after they are made, have been posted to a dedicated web page since September 2015.[27]
DSCOVR was placed in operation at the L1 Lagrange point to monitor the Sun, because the constant stream of particles from the Sun (the solar wind) reaches L1 about 60 minutes before reaching Earth. DSCOVR will usually be able to provide a 15- to 60-minute warning before a surge of particles and magnetic field from a coronal mass ejection (CME) reaches Earth and creates a geomagnetic storm. DSCOVR data will also be used to improve predictions of the impact locations of a geomagnetic storm to be able to take preventative action. Electronic technologies such as satellites in geosynchronous orbit are at risk of unplanned disruptions without warnings from DSCOVR and other monitoring satellites at L1.[35]
On 16–17 July 2015, DSCOVR took a series of images showing the Moon during a transit of Earth. The images were taken between 19:50 and 00:45 UTC. The animation was composed of monochrome images taken in different color filters at 30-second intervals for each frame, resulting in a slight color fringing for the Moon in each finished frame. Due to its position at Sun–Earth L1, DSCOVR will always see the Moon illuminated and will always see its far side when it passes in front of Earth.[36]
On 19 October 2015, NASA opened a new website to host near-live "Blue Marble" images taken by EPIC of Earth.[22] Twelve images are released each day, every two hours, showcasing Earth as it rotates on its axis.[37] The resolution of the images ranges from 10 to 15 km per pixel (6 to 9 mi/pixel), and the short exposure times renders points of starlight invisible.[37]
On 27 June 2019, DSCOVR was put into safe mode due to an anomaly with the laser gyroscope of the Miniature Inertial Measurement Unit (MIMU), part of the spacecraft's attitude control system.[38] Operators programmed a software patch that allows DSCOVR to operate without a laser gyroscope, using only the star tracker for angular rate information.[39] DSCOVR came out of the safe hold on 2 March 2020, and resumed normal operations.[40]
On 16 July 2025, DSCOVR suffered a software bus anomaly, which put it offline without an estimated date for recovery.[41] On 12 October 2025, the amateur-operated Dwingeloo Radio Observatory received signals again.,[42] after which AMSAT-DL successfully downloaded EPIC images on 23 October 2025.[43]
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Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR; formerly known as Triana and unofficially as GoreSat) is a United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) space weather, space climate, and Earth observation satellite. It was launched by SpaceX on a Falcon 9 v1.1 launch vehicle on 11 February 2015, from Cape Canaveral, Florida. This is NOAA's first operational deep space satellite and became its primary system of warning Earth in the event of solar magnetic storms. DSCOVR was originally proposed as an Earth observation spacecraft positioned at the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange point, providing live video of the sunlit side of the planet through the Internet as well as scientific instruments to study climate change. Political changes in the United States resulted in the mission's cancellation, and in 2001 the spacecraft was placed into storage. Proponents of the mission continued to push for its reinstatement, and a change in presidential administration in 2009 resulted in DSCOVR being taken out of storage and refurbished, and its mission was refocused to solar observation and early warning of coronal mass ejections while still providing Earth observation and climate monitoring. It launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle on 11 February 2015, and reached L1 on 8 June 2015, joining the list of objects orbiting at Lagrange points. NOAA operates DSCOVR from its Satellite and Product Operations Facility in Suitland, Maryland. The acquired space data that allows for accurate weather forecasts are carried out in the Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado. Archival records are held by the National Centers for Environmental Information, and processing of Earth sensor data is carried out by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is a European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft built by a European industrial consortium led by Matra Marconi Space (now Airbus Defence and Space) that was launched on a Lockheed Martin Atlas IIAS launch vehicle on 2 December 1995, to study the Sun. It has also discovered more than 5,000 comets. It began normal operations in May 1996. It is a joint project between the ESA and NASA. SOHO was part of the International Solar Terrestrial Physics Program (ISTP). Originally planned as a two-year mission, SOHO continues to operate after 30 years in space; the mission has been extended until year 2029, subject to review and confirmation by ESA's Science Programme Committee. In addition to its scientific mission, it is a main source of near-real-time solar data for space weather prediction. Along with Aditya-L1, Wind, Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE), Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) and other satellites, SOHO is one of five spacecraft in the vicinity of the Earth–Sun L1 point, a point of gravitational balance located approximately 0.99 astronomical unit (AU) from the Sun and 0.01 AU from the Earth. In addition to its scientific contributions, SOHO is distinguished by being the first three-axis-stabilized spacecraft to use its reaction wheels as a kind of virtual gyroscope; the technique was adopted after an on-board emergency in 1998 that nearly resulted in the loss of the spacecraft.
In celestial mechanics, the Lagrange points (), also called the Lagrangian points or libration points, are points of equilibrium for small-mass objects under the gravitational influence of two massive orbiting bodies. Mathematically, this involves the solution of the restricted three-body problem. Normally, the two massive bodies exert an unbalanced gravitational force at a point, altering the orbit of any other celestial body at that point. At the Lagrange points, the gravitational forces of the two large bodies and the centrifugal pseudo-force balance each other. This can make Lagrange points an excellent location for satellites, as orbit corrections, and hence fuel requirements, needed to maintain the desired orbit are kept at a minimum. For any combination of two orbital bodies, there are five Lagrange points, L1 to L5, all in the orbital plane of the two large bodies. There are five Lagrange points for the Sun–Earth system, and five different Lagrange points for the Earth–Moon system. L1, L2, and L3 are on the line through the centers of the two large bodies, while L4 and L5 each act as the third vertex of an equilateral triangle formed with the centers of the two large bodies. When the mass ratio of the two bodies is large enough, the L4 and L5 points are stable points, meaning that objects can orbit them and that they have a tendency to pull objects into them. Several planets have trojan asteroids near their L4 and L5 points with respect to the Sun; Jupiter has more than one million of these trojans. Some Lagrange points are being used for space exploration. Two important Lagrange points in the Sun–Earth system are L1, between the Sun and Earth, and L2, on the same line at the opposite side of the Earth; both are well outside the Moon's orbit. The Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), an artificial satellite, is located at L1 to study solar wind coming toward Earth from the Sun and to monitor Earth's climate by taking images of it. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a powerful infrared space observatory, is located at L2. This allows the satellite's sunshield to protect the telescope from the light and heat of the Sun, Earth and Moon simultaneously with no need to rotate the sunshield. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to L2 on 30 August 2026. The L1 and L2 Lagrange points are located about 1,500,000 km from Earth. The European Space Agency's earlier Gaia telescope, and its newly launched Euclid, also occupy orbits around L2. Gaia keeps a tighter Lissajous orbit around L2, while Euclid follows a halo orbit similar to JWST. Each of the space observatories benefits from being far enough from Earth's shadow to utilize solar panels for power, from not needing much power or propellant for station-keeping, from not being subjected to the Earth's magnetospheric effects, and from having direct line-of-sight to Earth for data transfer.
Rodrigo de Triana (1469 in Lepe, Huelva, Spain – 1535 in Maluku Islands) was a Spanish sailor, believed to be the first European from the Age of Exploration to have seen the Americas. Born as Juan Rodríguez Bermejo, Triana was the son of hidalgo and potter Vicente Bermejo and Sereni Betancour. Triana was a Marrano. On October 12, 1492, while on Christopher Columbus' ship La Pinta, he sighted a land that was called Guanahani by the natives."Esta tierra vidó primero un marinero que se decía Rodrigo de Triana, puesto que el Almirante a las diez de la noche, estando en el castillo de popa, vidó lumbre aunque fue cosa tan cerrada que no quiso afirmar que fuese tierra." — The Diary of Christopher Columbus After spotting the Bahamian island at approximately two o'clock in the morning, he is reported to have shouted "¡Tierra! ¡Tierra!" (Land! Land!). Columbus claims in his journal that he saw a light "like a little wax candle rising and falling" four hours earlier, "but it was so indistinct that he did not dare to affirm it was land." Rodrigo had spotted a small island in the Lucayas archipelago (known today as the Bahamas), in the Caribbean Sea. The island was named by Christopher Columbus as San Salvador, in honour of Jesus Christ and the salvation that finding land implied after that long journey. Columbus found questionable witnesses to support his claim and reward for being the first to see America. Triana was disgusted by that dishonesty. After his return to Spain, Triana sailed to Africa. Triana was a Catholic. NASA's Deep Space Climate Observatory, a satellite originally intended to provide a near-continuous view of the entire Earth, was initially named Triana, after Rodrigo de Triana.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Mae Jemison, aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992.
