NASA said a twin spacecraft to track the global water cycle has been successfully launched aboard the SpaceX rocket, along with five communications satellites today. The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On, GRACE-FO, is a joint mission by NASA and the German Research Centre for Geosciences. The spacecraft lifted off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
Associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Thomas Zurbuchen said in Washington that GRACE-FO will provide unique insights into how our complex planet operates. Mr. Zurbuchen said the mission monitors many key aspects of the Earth’s water cycle.
Over its five-year mission, GRACE-FO will monitor the movement of mass around our planet by measuring where and how the moving mass changes Earth’s gravitational pull. The first science data are expected to be released in about seven months.
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