The GRACE-FO (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment-Follow On) mission is set for a 22 May 2018 launch from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Air Force Base,California.Liftoff is scheduled for 12:47:39 PDT/3:47:39 EDT with an instantaneous launch window and another chance on 23 May.The two GRACE-FO spacecraft will be launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket along with five Iridium NEXT communications satellites as ride-ons.*
GRACE-FO will carry on the work of the first GRACE mission (2002-2017) of observing the movement of water and other elements of Earth's mass by tracking the fluctuating pull of their gravity with a high degree of precision,by pointing one of the angular spacecraft toward Earth and the other to outer space.Just as in the original GRACE mission,GRACE-FO will track the evolution of Earth's water cycle,recording the movement of water from the highest mountains to the depths of the sea.By tracing the distribution of water's mass over time,the mission will help to solve the mysteries of some of today's climatology challenges.*
The two GRACE-FO satellites were built by the Airbus Defence and Space subsidiary of Airbus SE.NASA's part of the mission is being managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the German Research Centre for Geosciences' (GFZ) portion is managed by the German Aerospace Centre (DLR).The data will start coming in to the NASA tracking station at McMurdo,Antarctica about 23 minutes after deployment.*
Airbus SE (EADSY) US:OTC
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