NASA has enlisted in the search for Flight 370, the Malaysian jet that went off the radar a week ago while carrying 239 people.
The space agency joined the hunt earlier this week, and officials plan to use satellite data to try to locate the commercial airliner, which vanished soon after takeoff while en route to Beijing.
"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," NASA spokesman Allard Beutel told Space.com in an email. "The resolution of images from these instruments could be used to identify objects of about 98 feet (30 meters) or larger."
The Boeing 777-200ER was last heard from when the jet was flying north into the Gulf of Thailand, Malyasian authorities told Reuters.
White House spokesman Jay Carney told media that the search for the missing aircraft may expand into the Indian Ocean, but he evaded any specifics.
"It's my understanding that based on some new information that's not necessarily conclusive--but new information--an additional search area may be opened in the Indian Ocean," he told reporters in Washington, according to Reuters.
The jetliner may have detoured in a westerly direction soon after taking off from Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.
As part of the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters, NASA plans to send "relevant data" to the U.S. Geological Survey's Earth Resources Observations and Science Hazard Data Distribution System, according to Space.com.
The charter, which uses data from 15 member organizations to provide assistance during such disasters, was activated by China on Tuesday, CNET reported.
Chinese officials announced Monday that a possible crash site with three large floating objects had been discovered in the jet's probable flight path, and authorities are investigating.
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