MethaneSAT, a privately funded, cutting-edge satellite developed to monitor global methane emissions, has stopped responding after nearly a year in orbit.
Designed to detect leaks primarily from the oil and gas (O&G) sector, the satellite was equipped with an advanced spectrometer created by a team led by Harvard scientists. It promised an unprecedented level of precision in tracking methane from space.
Communication was lost in June, but researchers say the mission had already gathered enough high-quality data to significantly support ongoing efforts to reduce methane emissions worldwide.
The Importance of Methane Monitoring
Methane is the second most impactful greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide, and its atmospheric concentration has nearly tripled since the preindustrial era, primarily due to human activity.
As well as contributing heavily to global warming, the gas also worsens air pollution. While MethaneSAT’s main focus was on monitoring emissions from the O&G industry, it also captured useful data from other major sources, such as agriculture and solid waste.
Over the course of its mission, the satellite surveyed nearly 1,000 sites and was able to distinguish between two types of emissions: concentrated point sources like leaking valves and pipes, and diffuse, area-wide emissions.
MethaneSAT was the first satellite purpose-built to quantify both. The mission’s goal was to provide this data to governments, industries, non-governmental organizations, and researchers to encourage better monitoring and reduction strategies.
What Happened to MethaneSAT?
Issues first arose on June 20 when MethaneSAT failed to make contact during a routine check-in. Initially, mission controllers suspected a minor disruption, possibly caused by cosmic rays or a solar storm, which would normally trigger an automatic reboot and place the satellite in safe mode. However, no reboot occurred.
Further concerns emerged when the built-in “watchdog” system, designed to reboot the satellite if no communication occurred within 24 hours, also failed. By the following Monday, June 23, a secondary backup watchdog had similarly gone silent. These failures suggested a loss of power and confirmed that the satellite was likely no longer operational.
While such failures are uncommon, they’re not unprecedented in space operations. Fortunately, in MethaneSAT’s case, the mission had already succeeded in gathering nearly a year’s worth of valuable data.
Its imaging capabilities, developed through collaborations with Harvard scientists and partners, delivered high-resolution methane concentration data over wide regions with exceptional detail. This makes the data collected to date a lasting resource for improving methane mitigation strategies.
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What’s Next?
With the satellite no longer in service, the mission's focus has shifted to converting its data into actionable insights. The team at Harvard is developing methods that accurately convert the satellite’s methane plume observations into precise estimates of emission rates from O&G regions.
Although similar attempts have been made before, MethaneSAT’s advanced sensor provided a more detailed dataset, introducing both new opportunities and also new challenges in processing the information.
Many of these challenges have already been addressed, and by the end of the year, the team expects to release data products that quantify methane emissions and intensity (how much methane is emitted per unit of natural gas produced) across major oil and gas production zones.
While the satellite did not capture every global O&G region, it successfully mapped a huge number of methane hotspots. The scientists note that ongoing observation of emission trends, essential for long-term tracking, will now require other tools and technologies.
How Monitoring Will Continue
While still early days since the mission failure, researchers are beginning to explore alternative approaches. One involves deploying two aircraft equipped with MethaneSAT-like instruments across North America. If funding becomes available, these airborne sensors could fill in some of the monitoring gaps left by the satellite’s loss.
Another strategy focuses on applying MethaneSAT’s analytical tools to data from other satellites. Japan’s recently launched Global Observing SATellite for Greenhouse Gases and Water cycle (GOSAT-GW) and the upcoming European Sentinel-5 mission can both contribute to continued methane tracking.
These systems will complement the existing Sentinel-5p satellite, which carries the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI), which is the most advanced methane sensor currently in orbit.
The Future of MethaneSAT and Beyond
MethaneSAT was uniquely funded through private investment, an unusual model in satellite development. Although this approach proved effective for the initial mission, it remains uncertain whether the same funders would support a second satellite, especially given the high costs involved.
At present, no other satellite with MethaneSAT’s exact capabilities exists, and none is officially planned. Even if a follow-up were approved today, it would likely take two and a half to three years to build and launch.
MethaneSAT’s unexpected loss was a setback, but the mission delivered where it counted, providing detailed, high-quality data to better understand one of the most potent greenhouse gases.
Continued innovation in satellite and airborne monitoring, combined with the smart use of existing platforms, will be essential to maintaining progress.
Reference
Powell, A. (2025). Methane tracking satellite lost in space — what now? [Online] Available at https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2025/09/methane-tracking-satellite-lost-in-space-what-now/ (Accessed on 02 October 2025)
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