After the launch of OSTM/Jason-2 on June 20, 2008, and several successful months of data collection, Jason-1 was moved to a new interleaved orbit in relation to the Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM). Originally they were in tandem. Jason-1 began maneuvering to the new orbit on January 26, 2009 (cycle 260) and the altimeter was placed in standby, i.e., no altimeter data collection.
On February 10, 2009, the altimeter was turned back on, but Jason-1 was still maneuvering to the new orbit. The maneuver was completed on February 14, 2009, and cycle 263 was the first complete cycle for the new orbit.
After experiencing multiple safeholds, in February and March of 2012, it was decided by the project that Jason-1 should enter into a new orbit that was more conducive for geodetic studies. The basis for this decision was to ensure the safety of the orbit used by OSTM/Jason-2 and future missions, such as Jason-3 and Jason-CS. This new orbit provided an opportunity to study the marine geodetic field in more detail. The geodetic mission began on May 7, 2012, at cycle 500.
The regular Jason-1 mission ended with cycle 374 pass 173 on March 3, 2012. It then took Jason-1 406 days to complete a cycle, but the data were separated into 11 days sub-cycles, as opposed to the 10 days cycle in the previous orbit. There were now 140 revolutions or 280 passes per 11 days cycle. Since the 11 days cycle was really a sub-cycle there wouldn't be a co-located repeat of the same numbered passes as in the previous orbit, i.e., cycle 500 pass 10 is not located over the same area as cycle 501 pass 10.
Contact was lost with the Jason-1 spacecraft on June 21, 2013, and it was decommissioned on July 1, 2013.