1 Introduction.- The Sea-Level Threat.- Satellite Observation.- Bureaucratic Entrepreneurship.- The Narrative Ahead.- 2 The Coming of Seasat.- The Apollo Illusion.- Initiating.- Thinking About the Oceans.- Fletcher’s Vision.- Ozone Depletion.- Stepping Stones to Seasat.- Enlisting Carl Wunsch: A Scientific Gatekeeper.- Seasat’s Problems.- Seasat Fails.- 3 Adopting TOPEX/Poseidon.- W. Stanley Wilso...