QuikSCAT

QuikSCAT (abbreviation of Quick Scatterometer ) is an Earth observation satellite of NASA, whose job it is to collect the NOAA information on the wind speed and direction over the oceans. The mission was launched shortly, as the NSCAT instrument due to a power outage in June 1997 was no more data on board the Japanese ADEOS -I satellite. QuikSCAT was placed in a sun-synchronous orbit on 20 June 1999, a Titan II from Vandenberg Air Force Base.

QuikSCAT is part of the Earth Observing System, a long-term research program of NASA.

Although designed for a two-year life QuikSCAT worked for over ten years, until 23 November 2009 turned out the mechanism for rotating the scatterometer antenna.