Satellite Tracking	Birds	Land Animals	Marine Animals	Fish	Internet Resources

A satellite from Argentina is following the migratory movements of Franca whales, also known as southern right whales. The whales feed somewhere in the South Atlantic during the summer and autumn and then return to Argentine waters in the winter and spring to raise their calves.

However, some of the southern right whales never return. That may be due to illegal culling by hunters. As a slow swimmer, a Franca whale is an easy target for hunters.

The Franca whale was hunted almost to extinction in the 18th and 19th centuries, but now has been protected for more than 50 years by the International Whaling Commission. Unfortunately, the Franca whale's recovery has been slow. Conservationists count no more than 4,000 to 5,000 southern right whales.

To help save the whales, the SAC-C satellite will chart their migratory route. The Argentinean Space Agency will help environmentalists who put transmitters on some whales.

Every few hours, a transmitter on a whale transmits a message up to the orbiting satellite revealing where the whale is and whether or not it is submerged.

International Cooperation

SAC-C was launched to Earth orbit Nov. 21, 2000, aboard a U.S. NASA Delta-2 rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The whale-watching project is part of a wider international cooperative mission being carried out by the U.S. space agency, the Argentine Commission on Space Activities (CONAE), Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES the French Space Agency), Instituto Nacional De Pesquisas Espaciais (Brazilian Space Agency), Danish Space Research Institute, and Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (Italian Space Agency).

SAC-C was developed by CONAE and NASA with contributions from Brazil, Denmark, France, and Italy. The 1,045-lb. SAC-C also carries out other scientific tasks such as studying the Earth's atmosphere and geomagnetic field and measuring space radiation. SAC-C flies in a sun-synchronous circular orbit at an altitude of 436 miles (702 kilometers).

RESOURCES: Whales On The Net, SAC-C NASA, SAC-C Argentina, and Space Satellite Handbook.

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