NASA is set to launch a spacecraft that will measure the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere on July 1 at 2:56 a.m. EDT. This new data-gathering tool is slated to be very useful for scientists and policymakers as the debate about climate change becomes more serious.
In 2009, the U.S. space agency attempted to launch a similar spacecraft but it was destroyed during the launch of the Taurus XL rocket. On Tuesday, NASA will attempt to launch another Orbiting Carbon Observatory spacecraft using a different launcher, called the Delta 2. A new observatory was also established to help scientists watch Earth's atmosphere from space.
The liftoff will take at least 56 minutes of countdown. The second stage of blast-off is expected to deploy the 7-foot tall hexagon-like observatory. The observatory would establish a temporary orbit at 426x434 miles with an inclination of 98.2 degrees relative to the equator.
The $467.7 million OCO2 mission follows the OCO 1 spacecraft, which was destroyed in a Taurus XL rocket launch mishap five years ago.
"OCO 2 is our first NASA mission dedicated to studying carbon dioxide. This makes it of critical importance to the scientists who are trying to understand the impact of humans on global change," Betsy Edwards, OCO 2 program executive with the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, told Spaceflight Now.
The device was built by Orbital Sciences Corp. It weighed 999 pounds and equipped with all the instruments it needs to carry out its two-year mission. NASA scientists expect the OCO2 to collect at least 69,000 measurements of the Earth's orbit as well as document the 16-day global mapping cycle. It has a three-channel, high-resolution spectrometer attached to a telescope which would be used to observe carbon dioxide levels on Earth's atmosphere. The telescope, meanwhile, will measure carbon dioxide levels and the amount of molecular oxygen absorbed by sunlight.
