NASA and DLR Sign Agreement to Continue Grace Mission Through 2015

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Alan Buis 818-354-0474
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Alan.buis@jpl.nasa.gov

Steve Cole 202-358-0918
NASA Headquarters, Washington
Stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov

John Yembrick 202-358-1100
NASA Headquarters, Washington
John.yembrick-1@nasa.gov

NEWS RELEASE: 2010-195 June 10, 2010
NASA AND DLR SIGN AGREEMENT TO CONTINUE GRACE MISSION THROUGH 2015

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-195&cid=release_2010-195

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver and German Aerospace Center
(DLR) Executive Board Chairman Johann-Dietrich Wörner signed an agreement Thursday during a
bilateral meeting in Berlin to extend the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (Grace) mission
through the end of its on-orbit life, which is expected in 2015.

Launched in March 2002, Grace tracks changes in Earth's gravity field by noting minute changes in
gravitational pull from local changes in Earth's mass. It does this by measuring changes in the
distance between its two identical spacecraft to one-hundredth the width of a human hair. These
spacecraft, developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., are in the same orbit
approximately 220 kilometers (137 miles) apart.

"The extension of this successful cooperative mission demonstrates the strength of the NASA-DLR
partnership and our commitment to continue working together in this very important area of Earth
science," Garver said.

NASA and DLR signed the original agreement in 1998. The two agencies jointly developed the
Grace mission and have cooperated on its operational phase since its launch. For the twin satellite
mission, NASA provided the instruments and selected satellite components, plus data validation and
archiving. DLR provided the primary satellite components, launch services and operations.

Grace maps gravity-field variations from month to month, recording changes caused by the seasons,
weather patterns and short-term climate change.

"The extension of this successful mission will deliver more valuable data to help us understand how
Earth's mass and gravity varies over time," Wörner said. "This is an important component necessary
to study changes in global sea level, polar ice mass, deep ocean currents and depletion and recharge of
continental aquifers. We appreciate the strong cooperation with our partner NASA."

Grace's monthly maps are up to 100 times more accurate than existing maps, substantially improving
the accuracy of techniques used by oceanographers, hydrologists, glaciologists, geologists and climate
scientists.

Data from the Grace mission have been used to measure the amount of water lost in recent years from
the aquifers for California's primary agricultural region in the state's Central Valley. An international
study recently used Grace data to show that ice losses from Greenland's ice sheet now are rapidly
spreading up its northwest coast.

For more information about the Grace mission, visit: http://science.nasa.gov/missions/grace .

JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

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