Launch of the Shuttle mission STS-99, which begins an 11-day SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) mapping of 80% of the Earth’s surface. Space Shuttle Endeavour maps 80% of the Earth’s surface with synthetic aperture radar. The radar is a technological gem, the result of a NASA-JPL / Italian Space Agency (ASI) / German Aerospace Center (DLR) collaboration. Earth is the second planet in the Solar System to benefit from such detailed mapping (30m horizontal and 16m vertical resolution). The first was Venus (which, however, was mapped much more thoroughly: 98%), thanks to the American Magellan probe several years earlier.
