The Goddard Space Flight Center‘s Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) has completed testing of its laser altimeter, its final test before full operation.

The focus of the operations is now on fine-tuning and calibrating the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS), which will record ice height measurements and land elevations as satellite orbits the Earth every 90 minutes. Ball Aerospace & Technologies (Boulder, Colo.), which made the satellite, will continue to operate ICESat throughout the mission as the focus of ICESat operations transitions to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the science team. Calibrated on-orbit measurements are expected by early summer.

As part of NASA’s Earth Observing System, the primary role of ICESat is to quantify the growth or retreat of the ice sheets covering Antarctica and Greenland over a five-year period. The mission is designed to answer questions concerning many related aspects of the Earth’s climate system, including global climate and sea level changes.