UPDATE: SpaceX Scrubbed PACE Launch Till Thur. Feb. 8th 2024 Due To High Winds

Weather Permitting SpaceX & NASA are ready to launch the PACE Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem satellite which has been in the works for the last ten years at 1:33 AM Tuesday morning February 6th 2024 from SLC-40 Cape Canaveral, Florida. The weather forecast is only 40% go for launch.

PACE will extend and improve upon NASA's twenty plus years of global satellite observation of our living ocean, atmospheric aerosols, clouds and initiate an advance set of climate relevant data records. By determining the distribution of phytoplankton, PACE will help assess ocean health. It will also continue key measurements related to air quality and climate. 

PACE's specific science goals include: extending systematic ocean color, atmospheric aerosol, and cloud data records for Earth system and climate studies; and addressing new & emerging science questions by detecting a broader range of color wavelengths that will provide new unprecedented detail.

First stage booster B-1081 will be making its fourth flight to space with a RTLS (return to landing site) at LZ-1 with double sonic booms at landing roughly eight minutes after liftoff.

Summary by NASA Photos by Scott Schilke for spacenewsfl.com