From BBC
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Climate and science reporter, BBC News
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An $88m (£65m) satellite designed to detect releases of the planet-warming gas methane from oil and gas production, has been lost in space in a major setback for climate efforts.
The MethaneSat satellite which had backing from Google and billionaire Jeff Bezos, was launched only last year aboard an Elon Musk SpaceX rocket.
It was meant to collect data for five years on sources of the powerful greenhouse gas, which is responsible for nearly a third of human-induced warming, to help curtail the worst offenders.
The Environment Defense Fund, the NGO which oversees the satellite, said that communication was lost ten days ago and is currently undertaking an investigation into what happened.
Methane is the most potent of the greenhouse gases, and although it does not hang around in the atmosphere as long as carbon dioxide, it is 28 times stronger over a 100-year period.
Despite an international commitment to reduce methane levels by 30% by 2030, year-on-year it continues to rise with the target unlikely to be met, according to the European Space Agency.
The main sources of methane are from oil and gas production, farming and food decomposition in landfill.
But many of the current satellites that monitor it are operated privately, reducing reducing transparency of who the worst offenders for methane release are.
MethaneSat came after years of development by the NGO Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and once launched made much of its data publicly available, allowing scrutiny by governments and scientists.
It was backed
