A satellite designed to demonstrate the feasibility of global ocean monitoring from space. After a successful launch on 28 June 1978, Seasat produced promising results, but the mission was terminated after only three months following a failure in the satellite's electrical system. Instrumentation flown on Seasat included a radar altimeter, a microwave scatterometer for measuring surface wind speed and direction, a scanning multichannel microwave radiometer for sea surface temperature, a visible and infrared radiometer, and the first spaceborne synthetic aperture radar.