A Kennedy Space Center-led team this morning oversaw the successful launch of an important NASA climate satellite from California, five years after a rocket failure doomed the mission's original spacecraft.
NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 lifted off at 5:56 a.m. EDT from Vandenberg Air Force Base, and was deployed in a polar orbit within an hour by a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket.
Tim Dunn, the launch director from KSC's Launch Services Program, described 'pure joy' in the control room as the phone booth-sized spacecraft separated safely about 430 miles up, an event that could be seen through a camera on the rocket's upper stage.
The $467.7 million mission will spend at least two years studying where carbon dioxide is produced into Earth's atmosphere and where it is naturally absorbed, information that will improve modeling of the greenhouse gas that is the primary human contributor to climate change.
'This challenging mission is both timely and important,' said Michael Freilich, director of the Earth Science Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. 'OCO-2 will produce exquisitely precise measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations near Earth's surface, laying the foundation for informed policy decisions on how to adapt to and reduce future climate change.'
The first Orbiting Carbon Observatory failed to reach orbit in 2009 when the payload fairing failed to separate from an Orbital Sciences rocket. Orbital built both the original spacecraft and its replacement.
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Entities 0 Name: NASA Count: 2 1 Name: Earth Count: 2 2 Name: Launch Services Program Count: 1 3 Name: United Launch Alliance Delta Count: 1 4 Name: Orbital Sciences Count: 1 5 Name: Tim Dunn Count: 1 6 Name: Washington Count: 1 7 Name: Science Mission Directorate Count: 1 8 Name: California Count: 1 9 Name: KSC Count: 1 10 Name: Orbiting Carbon Observatory Count: 1 11 Name: Vandenberg Air Force Base Count: 1 12 Name: Michael Freilich Count: 1 13 Name: Earth Science Division of NASA Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1qxkoI2 Title: NASA Launches Satellite to Monitor Carbon Dioxide Description: NASA has launched its first spacecraft devoted to monitoring atmospheric carbon dioxide, the heat-trapping gas thought to be responsible for much of Earth's recent warming trend. The space agency's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 satellite (OCO-2) blasted off today (July 2) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 5:56 a.m.
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