A joint NASA and French Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES) space mission that was launched from French Guiana on 10 August 1992 into a polar orbit at a height of 1330 km. Its instruments measured sea level, tides, and large-scale ocean features, as well as changes in the heat stored in the oceans. The mission was planned to last three years, but it was not until October 2005 that a malfunction caused the satellite to cease transmitting data and it was turned off on 18 January 2006. See jason-1.
http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/topex/ A joint CNES and NASA mission to measure the ocean topography of Earth.