The Federal Government’s new Space Strategy aims to take account of the increasing significance of space flight, and is focusing on the key fields of action for this, such as international cooperation and climate change mitigation. The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research are working together to make a success of the new German-U.S. satellite mission entitled “Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment – Continuity” (GRACE-C).

In this mission, two satellites of the same design fly at a distance of approximately 200 km from each other on the same flight path, measuring global changes in the Earth’s field of gravity. The data collected will be used worldwide, for example for the assessment and prediction of periods of drought and the rise in the sea level. The data will also feed regularly into the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). As a successor mission to GRACE (2002 – 2017) and GRACE-FO (Follow On, since 2018), the new GRACE-C Mission will continue to help us to gain a better understanding of the Earth’s system and the movements of its water.

Federal Government Coordinator of German Aerospace Policy Dr. Anna Christmann: “The GRACE missions are one of the most frequently cited sources in the international climate report, because they provide such unique data on the distribution of water on Earth. Germany attaches great priority to continuing the successful cooperation on the new GRACE-C satellite mission with NASA. The implementation of the climate mission is another key project in the Federal Government’s Space Strategy, and is also crucial for international cooperation, working with strong partners to bring together the leading capabilities of the German space sector and climate research and to build on this.”

Parliamentary State Secretary Mario Brandenburg: “If we are to effectively tackle climate change, we need to gain an even better understanding of global water movements. The unique measurements made by the GRACE-C satellite mission make an important contribution towards this. The insights gained are vital for the prediction of future climate trends and the assessment of food and water security. The mission is also an important element in the realisation of the Future Research and Innovation Strategy.”

The missions in the GRACE series are an outstanding example of successful transatlantic cooperation on climate research and the space industry. GRACE-C will now continue the joint efforts of Germany and the U.S. to gain a better understanding of climate change and its consequences for Earth, and to take important decisions in the fight against climate change.

The Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research decided in 2023 to continue cooperation on the funding of the GRACE-C climate mission. It is also backed by significant contributions from other German project partners such as the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences and the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute, AEI). The GFZ will scientifically evaluate the data, and the AEI is responsible for building a module to measure the distance between the twin satellites using laser technology. The German Space Agency at DLR is managing the German contributions towards GRACE-C. The GRACE-C mission will be implemented together with NASA, the U.S. space agency. All the necessary agreements between the participating players from Germany and the U.S. were concluded in 2023, so that work has now commenced on the construction of the twin satellites by Airbus Defence & Space GmbH in Friedrichshafen on behalf of NASA. The launch of the satellites is scheduled for the end of 2028.

Further information is available at www.dlr.de