The NESDIS Sea Surface Height (SSH) Science Team deals almost exclusively with satellite altimeter data and has been involved in every radar altimeter mission since GEOS-3 in 1975. In recent years, the focus of the team has been on the transition from research to operations, both in terms of data processing systems and ocean applications. Here we show how SSH team activities in three areas - altimeter data sets, ocean dynamics, and bathymetry - reflect the changing nature of satellite oceanography at NOAA. The SSH team is presently engaged in several near-real time data processing and distribution activities in collaboration with the US Navy and EUMETSAT. As part of a National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP) pilot project, the team is working with other investigators to produce operationally and in near-real time ocean surface currents from satellite altimeter and scatterometer observations. At short (10 to 200 km wavelength) scales, most of the permanent sea surface topography signal in the deep ocean is caused by gravity anomalies reflecting depth variations on the ocean floor. The SSH team has a number of projects studying aspects of these signals and developing GIS-compatible bathymetry and gravity products.