Overview
The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) III pollution-monitoring instrument flew on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2017 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 cargo resupply launch. SAGE III is mounted to the ISS where it operates along with experiments from all over the world.
SAGE III measures the vertical structure of aerosols, ozone, water vapor, and other gases in the atmosphere. The SAGE family of instruments was pivotal in making accurate measurements of the level of ozone loss in Earth’s atmosphere and in measuring the ozone recovery resulting from international mandates. These measurements are vital inputs to the global scientific community to improve understanding of climate, climate change and human-induced ozone trends.
Click this link to learn more about the SAGE III instrument on the NASA website.
NASA Earth Observatory SAGE III
Click this link to learn more about the SAGE III instrument on the NASA Earth Observatory website
What We Did
We built three SAGE III instruments that were delivered in the late 1990s: the SAGE III Meteor-3M instrument, the SAGE III Flight of Opportunity instrument and the SAGE III on ISS instrument.
SAGE III was originally built to fly on the ISS as early as 2005, but launch was delayed due to design changes on the station’s Earth-facing exterior. The instrument spent several years in storage at NASA’s Langley Research Center, and in 2011, we began refurbishing it.
This activity included assessing whether the stored instrument was suitable for flight. The original optical attenuator mechanism was removed and replaced with a refurbished unit. Several flight software changes were identified and completed to accommodate the updated ISS mission.
Sage III launched on February 19th, 2017. The instrument completed its prime mission of three years and was renewed for three additional years.
We supported Langley through instrument test, delivery to the launch site, launch and early orbit operations.