Apr 28 2006
From The Space Library
NASA launched two meteorological satellites, CloudSat and CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations), aboard a Boeing Delta 2 rocket, at 11:02 (UT) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The satellites would eventually circle 438 miles (705 kilometers) above Earth in a Sun-synchronous polar orbit. CloudSat, an experimental mission designed to study the effects of clouds on climate and weather, was 1,000 times more sensitive than typical weather radar, using millimeter-wavelength radar to measure the altitude and properties of clouds. CALIPSO carried three instruments to study the role that clouds and atmospheric aerosols (airborne particles) play in regulating Earth’s weather, climate, and air quality. The two satellites would become part of a constellation of Earth-observing satellites known as the A-train, joining the satellites Aqua, Aura, and PARASOL.
Spacewarn Bulletin, no. 630; NASA, “NASA Launches Satellites for Weather, Climate, Air-Quality Studies,” news release 06-190, 28 April 2006, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/apr/HQ_06190_CloudSat_CALIPSO_launch.html (accessed 25 September 2009); Jesco von Puttkamer, “Space Flight 2006—The Year in Review,” July 20, 2007, http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/somd/reports/2006/us.html (accessed 3 March 2010).
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