Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370: NASA Joins in the Hunt (Representational Image)
Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370: NASA Joins in the Hunt (Representational Image)Reuters

The US space agency, NASA has recently joined the search mission in order to locate the Malaysia Airlines Flight that went missing on Saturday.

NASA, on Monday 10 March started examining for the possible locations and how it can contribute to the search for the Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 by using its space assets to locate relevant images of Earth from space.

"Activities under way include mining data archives of satellite data acquired earlier and using space-based assets, such as the Earth-Observing-1(EO-1) satellite and the ISERV camera on the International Space Station, to acquire new images of possible crash sites. The resolution of images from these instruments could be used to identify objects of about 98 feet (30 meters) or larger." Allard Beutel, NASA spokesman told Space.com.

Moreover, NASA will be sending relevant data to the US Geological Survey's Earth Resources Observations and Science Hazard Data Distribution System, which help in sharing information when major disaster and International Charter on Space is activated.

The Charter was activated on Tuesday, 11 March by China and aims to reduce the effects of man-made and natural disasters by reforming the delivery of space-acquired data, according to CNET report.

The flight MH370 that took off from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing lost all contact with the air traffic control and remains missing with 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board.

However, on Wednesday, 12 March, Chinese officials announced that one of its satellites had spotted a possible crash point. The images of the spacecraft captured three huge floating objects in the water located northeast of Kuala Lumpur, according to a report.

A follow-up survey by recovery aircrafts and boats could confirm if the objects are pieces of the Malaysian Airlines plane, experts say.

Similar incident occurred in June 2009, when Air France Flight 447 disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean while travelling from Rio de Janeiro en route to Paris. The wrecked airplane was located after five days and took close to two years to find the plane's black boxes from the ocean bed.