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SpaceX’s launch on Saturday may be a small step for a company that is making increasingly regular trips to orbit, but the payload from the latest mission represents a giant step forward for climate studies here on Earth.
The launch itself was a success in every respect. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from a launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Saturday morning, shortly after 9:00 a.m. PT. The weather was beautiful and the launch was just in time, as you can see in the video below.
The first stage of the Falcon 9 separated a few minutes after launch. This particular SpaceX rocket is partially reusable, so the first stage returned to the ground unharmed, with a controlled descent and a perfect landing that drew cheers from observers.
But again, it’s the payload that matters. This Falcon 9 put NASA’s Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite into orbit. It is the first step in a two-phase mission that will provide researchers with more real-time data on a planet undergoing significant climate change.
The real Dr. Michael Freilich, for whom the satellite is named, was a former director of NASA’s Earth Sciences Division. According to the space agency’s data sheet, it was Freilich who pioneered the idea of investigating oceanography from space.
This initial launch will launch the mission to study Earth’s changing climate, although a second identical Sentinel-6 satellite will launch in 2025. Those two satellites together will eventually form a power duo, but the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich it will be difficult at work even during the five years you fly by alone.
According to NASA, the Sentinel-6 satellites will offer better coastal monitoring than before, with more accurate information on changes in sea levels. That research will also be packed with more data, giving researchers a better understanding of the forces driving these changes.
Sentinel-6 will also build on the existing network of orbiting satellites, reading their radio signals as they pass through Earth’s atmosphere. This will make it possible to measure “minute changes in atmospheric density, temperature and moisture content.”
The net result of all this research should lead to improvements in our terrestrial weather forecasts, including improved tracking as hurricanes form and move across the planet. Given the dangerously record-breaking hurricane season of 2020, this is encouraging news for our increasingly storm-ravaged planet.
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