Jason-3 is a four-agency international partnership consisting of NOAA, NASA, Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, or CNES — France’s space agency — and the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, or EUMETSAT. Thales Alenia of France built the spacecraft.
According to Jim Silva, NOAA’s Jason-3 program manager, this international partnership is the secret to the mission’s success.
“This mission could not be possible without the productive collaboration between NOAA and its partners: EUMETSAT, the French space agency CNES, and NASA,” Silva said Friday.