The launch contract to launch the Surface Water & Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission has been awarded by NASA to SpaceX. The launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 will fly from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in April 2021. The contracted price of the launch is reported by NASA to be circa US$112 million including launch, tracking and payload integration services.
The joint French Space Agency (CNES)/NASA Surface Water & Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission for U.S. and French oceanographers and hydrologists has been planned make the first global survey of Earth’s surface water, observe the fine details of the ocean’s surface topography, and measure how water bodies change over time.
