Falcon 9 • EarthCARE

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) satellite to a sun-synchronous polar orbit at 393.14 km altitude and an inclination of 97.05°. This is principally a European Space Agency (ESA) mission, but it was developed with cooperation with the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). It includes two passive instruments that observe the atmosphere and two active instruments. The spacecraft has a designed lifetime of three years, which includes a six-month commissioning phase.