Environmental satellite Jason-3 has Ruag technology on board

The launch took place from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Jason-3 includes Ruag Space products. Fourth satellite of the series since Topex-Poseidon, the Jason-3 satellite, with its new generation of instruments, will provide more detailed information about weather and the state of the world's oceans. Built by Thales Alenia Space as prime contractor, the Jason-3 operational oceanographic mission involves a quadripartite collaboration between the two meteorological organizations Eumetsat and NOAA, and French Space Agency CNES and its American counterpart NASA. Ruag Space in Gothenburg developed and manufactured the satellite's Data Management Unit. With a mass of more than 30 kg, this is the largest single electronic unit yet produced by Ruag Space. Its main jobs are to control all on-board satellite functions, store all scientific data and communicate with the Earth. Ruag Space also manufactured the antennae used for all communications with the Earth and all of the space-to-ground linkage for the scientific data. Ruag Space in Linköping supplied the separation system that releases the satellite from the launcher at exactly the right moment for it to achieve precisely the correct orbit.