The Swedish research satellite Odin marked nine years in orbit Feb. 20, far outlasting its two-year mission to study star formation and ozone layer depletion.
Built by the Swedish Space Corp. in partnership with Canada, France and Finland, Odin launched on its unusual astronomy and aeronomy mission in 2001 aboard a Start-1 rocket from Svobodny, Russia. The 250-kilogram satellite is equipped with a radio telescope and an optical spectrograph.
The Swedish Space Corp. said Feb. 22 that Odin data have resulted in 29 doctoral theses, the most recent of which is on satellite microwave measurements of cloud-ice properties, a newly developed method expected to yield information on ice clouds and their impact on the Earth’s climate.
