Lost in Space: A ‘Game-Changing’ Emissions Satellite Just Went Dark
An $88 million satellite backed by billionaire Jeff Bezos is lost in space. MethaneSAT, designed to sniff out sources of methane emissions across the globe, only survived about 15 months in Earth’s orbit before meeting its untimely end. The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), which launched the satellite in March 2024, announced its demise on July 1. The organization revealed that MethaneSAT suddenly went silent on June 20, and its mission operations team has been unable to re-establish contact e