Laser Geodynamics Satellite - 1

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana
May, 1976 to May, 2052

LAGEOS-I is a of NASA - the orbit of the spacecraft (and its slight perturbations) represent the geodynamic measurements. LAGEOS-I is the first NASA satellite dedicated wholly to laser ranging. LAGEOS was designed to act as a permanent reference point so that the Earth's progress could be tracked relative to the satellite (in contrast to the traditional system of tracking satellites relative to the Earth). One of LAGEOS' functions is to aid in the understanding of the Earth's crustal motions. The USGS (United States Geological Survey) as well as many institutions around the world are tracking the LAGEOS orbit to study the dynamics of the solid Earth, to analyze (deduce) continental drift (plate tectonics, crustal deformations), the Earth's gravitational field, and the “wobble” in the Earth's axis of rotation.

directory.eoportal.org

http://www.asi.it

Instrument	Datasets
Laser Retroreflector Array	0

Also known as :

• missionID 201 (ceos lexicon)
• Mission LAGEOS-1 (ceos lexicon)