MethaneSAT, a satellite backed by Jeff Bezos to track methane emissions, has been lost in space. The Environmental Defence Fund (EDF), which led the project, said the satellite went off course about 10 days ago and lost power. Its last known location was over Svalbard in Norway.
MethaneSAT Had the Power to Redefine Methane Monitoring
EDF launched MethaneSAT in March 2024 to track methane leaks from oil and gas sites worldwide. The mission supported climate pledges made by over 120 countries in 2021 and 50 companies at COP28 in Dubai to cut methane and stop routine gas flaring. Methane warms the planet 80 times more than COโ over 20 years.
The satellite had sent back data and images from pipelines and drilling sites globally. Amy Middleton, EDF’s senior vice president, said, “We’re seeing this as a setback, not a failure. We’ve made so much progress and so much has been learned that if we hadn’t taken this risk, we wouldn’t have any of these learnings.”
EDF notified the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Federal Communications Commission, and U.S. Space Force. Engineers are investigating the cause of the failure. EDF said the satellite cost $88 million, and the project received a $100 million grant from the Bezos Earth Fund in 2020.
Other key funders include Arnold Ventures, the Robertson Foundation, the TED Audacious Project, and EDF donors. The project also worked with the New Zealand Space Agency. MethaneSAT had partnered with Google to build a public map of emissions.
Though not the only methane-tracking satellite, EDF said MethaneSAT offered higher detail and wide-area coverage. They believe it showed that such instruments can detect total emissions, even at low levels. EDF said itโs too early to say if they will launch another satellite.
EDF will continue using planes equipped with methane-detecting spectrometers to spot leaks. The UN said last year that โsuper-emittersโ rarely act when informed of leaks. Pressure to respond has dropped after the Trump administration ended greenhouse gas data collection and rolled back methane rules.
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