spacetoday.net: CloudSat and CALIPSO finally launched

Posted: Fri, Apr 28, 2006, 12:38 PM ET (1638 GMT)
CloudSat and CALIPSO illustration (NASA)

After a week's worth of launch pad delays, a Delta 2 carrying two Earth sciences spacecraft finally lifted off Friday morning. The Delta 2 launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 6:02 am EDT (1002 GMT) and placed its payloads, the ClousSat and Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) spacecraft, into polar orbit, the two spacecraft separating from the Delta's upper stage 30 minutes apart starting an hour after launch. The launch had been delayed for the last week because of a litany of issues, ranging from poor weather to a faulty sensor on the rocket to communications problems on the ground. The two spacecraft are designed to study the role of clouds in shaping the planet's climate. CALIPSO, a joint project of NASA and the French space agency CNES, carries a lidar and camera to study clouds and aerosols in the atmosphere; CloudSat has a radar designed to provide a three-dimensional map of cloud cover.