[Satellite TODAY 09-18-09] Thales Alenia Space has shipped the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) Earth observation satellite to the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia, for its scheduled Nov. 2 launch, Thales Alenia Space announced.

    SMOS is a joint mission conducted by the European Space Agency (ESA), which is coordinating the mission in partnership with French space agency, CNES and the Center for the Development of Industrial Technology in Spain. Its main mission is to provide global maps of high sensitivity and resolution with a large spatial and temporal coverage.

    Thales Alenia Space provided the spacecraft’s Proteus multi-mission module in cooperation with CNES and was in charge of the overall satellite integration and qualification tests. The L-band radiometer-interferometer module comprised of an antenna with three 4-meter deployable arms fitted with 69 passive receivers was developed in Spain and built by EADS CASA.
   SMOS is the fifth satellite based on the Proteus multi-mission platform and the fourth in this series dedicated to Earth observation and climate change studies following the Jason 1 and 2, Calipso and Corot spacecraft.

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