Lost in space: This $134m satellite backed by Jeff Bezos has just gone missing
MethaneSAT had been collecting emissions data and images from drilling sites, pipelines, and processing facilities around the world since March, but went off course around 10 days ago, the Environmental Defence Fund, which led the initiative, said.
Its last known location was over Svalbard in Norway and EDF said it did not expect it to be recovered as it had lost power.
'We're seeing this as a setback, not a failure,' Amy Middleton, senior vice president at EDF, told Reuters.
Loading
'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.'
The launch of MethaneSAT in March 2024 was a milestone in a years-long campaign by EDF to hold accountable the more than 120 countries that in 2021 pledged to curb their methane emissions.
It also sought to help enforce a further promise from 50 oil and gas companies made at the Dubai COP28 climate summit in December 2023 to eliminate methane and routine gas flaring.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, with 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over a 20 year period.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News AU
7 days ago
- Sky News AU
Resurfaced clips of Buzz Aldrin reignite Apollo 11 landing conspiracy theory as US marks 56th anniversary of first man to walk on the moon
Resurfaced clips of Buzz Aldrin have reignited an old conspiracy theory about the 1969 moon landing, with scientists once again having to debunk it. As the United States prepares to mark the 56th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, old clips of Buzz Aldrin have resurfaced, which have reignited a conspiracy theory claiming the iconic 1969 moon landing never happened. The clips, which show Aldrin on the Late Night with Conan O'Brien Show back in 2000 have, according to some social media commentators, given credence to the theory that man never made it to the lunar surface. In the video, Aldrin responded to a quip by host Conan O'Brien saying that he watched the moon landing as a boy. 'No, you didn't,' Aldrin snapped. "There wasn't any television, there wasn't anyone taking a picture. You watched an animation," he said. The video, which has since racked up more than a million views online, has led to conspiracy theorists in the United States taking it as gospel that the moon landings were faked and were staged by NASA to fool the Soviet Union. A subsequent 2015 clip has also gone viral, with an eight-year-old girl asking the NASA veteran why NASA has not returned to the moon since, to which he replied, 'Because we didn't go there, and that's the way it happened.' Doubt over the moon landing took root in the mid-1970s, fuelled by public mistrust after Watergate and the Pentagon Papers. Theories about staged sets, lighting inconsistencies, and suspicious interviews have persisted ever since. — Stew Peters (@realstewpeters) March 20, 2023 NASA has repeatedly dismissed such claims, pointing to telemetry data, lunar rock samples, and the testimonies of thousands of engineers, scientists, and astronauts as proof of the mission's authenticity. In fact, a Reuters fact check from 2023 has debunked the 2000 clip, with the news agency reporting that Aldrin's comments are related to animation graphics that television networks used to illustrate the moon landings. The news agency also debunked the 2015 clip, which was a question-and-answer session at the Oxford Union. They said the clips edited out elements where Aldrin was talking about his fears of a technical failure in the craft that could have caused a catastrophic fire like the Apollo 1 disaster or caused a decompression sending himself and Neil Armstrong into the vacuum of space. Aldrin is the only surviving member of the Apollo 11 team after Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins died in 2012 and 2021, respectively. In the 2024 US election, he endorsed Donald Trump for the presidency after he made a promise to put an American astronaut back onto the moon.
The Age
02-07-2025
- The Age
A $134 million satellite that keeps an eye on some of the world's biggest companies has disappeared
An $US88 million ($134 million) satellite backed by billionaire Jeff Bezos that detected oil and gas industry emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas methane has been lost in space, the group that operates it said on Tuesday. MethaneSAT had been collecting emissions data and images from drilling sites, pipelines, and processing facilities around the world since March, but went off course around 10 days ago, the Environmental Defence Fund, which led the initiative, said. Its last known location was over Svalbard in Norway and EDF said it did not expect it to be recovered as it had lost power. 'We're seeing this as a setback, not a failure,' Amy Middleton, senior vice president at EDF, told Reuters. Loading '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.' The launch of MethaneSAT in March 2024 was a milestone in a years-long campaign by EDF to hold accountable the more than 120 countries that in 2021 pledged to curb their methane emissions. It also sought to help enforce a further promise from 50 oil and gas companies made at the Dubai COP28 climate summit in December 2023 to eliminate methane and routine gas flaring. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, with 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over a 20 year period.
Sydney Morning Herald
02-07-2025
- Sydney Morning Herald
A $134 million satellite that keeps an eye on some of the world's biggest companies has disappeared
An $US88 million ($134 million) satellite backed by billionaire Jeff Bezos that detected oil and gas industry emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas methane has been lost in space, the group that operates it said on Tuesday. MethaneSAT had been collecting emissions data and images from drilling sites, pipelines, and processing facilities around the world since March, but went off course around 10 days ago, the Environmental Defence Fund, which led the initiative, said. Its last known location was over Svalbard in Norway and EDF said it did not expect it to be recovered as it had lost power. 'We're seeing this as a setback, not a failure,' Amy Middleton, senior vice president at EDF, told Reuters. Loading '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.' The launch of MethaneSAT in March 2024 was a milestone in a years-long campaign by EDF to hold accountable the more than 120 countries that in 2021 pledged to curb their methane emissions. It also sought to help enforce a further promise from 50 oil and gas companies made at the Dubai COP28 climate summit in December 2023 to eliminate methane and routine gas flaring. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, with 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over a 20 year period.
