New NASA soil moisture mapper completes key milestone

Mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, today sent commands to unfurl the 20-foot-wide (6-meter) reflector antenna on NASA's new Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) observatory, launched Jan. 31. The deployment of the mesh reflector antenna, which supports the collection of SMAP's radar and radiometer instrument measurements in space, marks a key milestone in commissioning the satellite. SMAP will soon begin its three-year science mission to map global soil moisture and detect whether soils are frozen or thawed.

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