Organization

The two agencies’ commitments and responsibilities are set out in the CNES-NASA Implementing Arrangement signed on 2 May 2014:

CNES

• Spacecraft bus, including payload storage memory, and satellite integration and testing
• RF chain for the main KaRIn instrument
• Ku-C Nadir altimeter and DORIS instrument
• Satellite command-control centre, S-band and X-band stations and operations
• Mission ground segment for command-control of French instruments and processing of data from the nadir payload, and a global oceanography and hydrology data processing centre
• Distribution of mission ocean and surface water products

NASA

• Main KaRIn instrument
• Advanced Microwave Radiometer (AMR)
• Global Positioning System Payload (GPSP)
• Onboard X-band telemetry system
• Construction, integration and testing of the payload module and delivery to CNES
• Launch system
• Mission ground segment for U.S. instruments and a KaRIn data reprocessing centre

CNES and UKSA also signed a bilateral cooperation agreement on 29 September 2014 under which UKSA is funding all development costs for the RFU duplexer at Honeywell-UK.

NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) signed a cooperation agreement in 2014 under which CSA is funding development of the extended interaction klystrons (EIK) for KaRIn’s high-power amplifier (HPA).