NASA's first spacecraft dedicated to studying carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere has been cleared to blast off today, and you can watch the launch live in a webcast.

 

The space agency's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 satellite (OCO-2) passed its launch readiness review Sunday, June 29, meaning the craft is set to lift off today from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 5:56 a.m. EDT (0956 GMT; 2:56 a.m. local time) atop a United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket. NASA TV will host a webcast of the OCO-2 launch starting at 3:45 a.m. EDT (0745 GMT) and you can watch it on Space.com.

 

The concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide — a heat-trapping "greenhouse gas" — has risen from 280 parts per million (ppm) before the Industrial Revolution to about 400 ppm today. Scientists think this increase is the major driver behind the warming trend observed on Earth recently.

 

The $465 million OCO-2 mission is designed to help scientists better understand Earth's carbon cycle, identifying natural and manmade sources and sinks of CO2 with great precision.

 

OCO-2, which is destined for a polar orbit 438 miles (705 kilometers) above Earth, will use a spectrometer to measure carbon dioxide concentrations in the air 24 times every second. It will peer down at the planet with a small field of view — just 1 square mile (3 square km) — so that clouds disrupt its measurements as little as possible.

 

The OCO mission cost $275 million. OCO-2's higher price tag is partly the result of NASA's decision to go with a bigger rocket (the Delta 2), which is more expensive and also contributed to a delay of about one year, which also bumped up costs, agency officials have said.

 

PHOTO: NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 is encapsulated into the Delta 2 payload fairing at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. OCO-2 is scheduled to launch at 5:56 a.m. EDT on July 1, 2014

Credit: NASA/30th Space Wing, U.S. Air Force