PACE – Spaceflight Now

SpaceX successfully launches NASA’s PACE mission on polar orbit flight

February 5, 2024 Will Robinson-Smith

The mission is the first of the year for NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the Kennedy Space Center. The Falcon 9 rocket is lifted off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 1:33 a.m. EST (0633 UTC) on Feb. 8.

NASA’s PACE mission aims to vastly increase understanding of the oceans, atmosphere

February 5, 2024 Will Robinson-Smith

The spacecraft named PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) has a nominal operating life of three years with the amount of fuel to potentially have it last a decade. It’s set to launch onboard a Falcon 9 rocket on Tuesday, Feb. 6.

SpaceX wins contract to launch NASA’s PACE Earth science mission

February 5, 2020 Stephen Clark

SpaceX has won an $80 million contract to launch a NASA environmental research satellite aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in late 2022 to collect data on ocean ecosystems and clouds, a mission that the Trump administration wished to cancel.

NASA officials expect fewer Earth science missions in coming years

April 3, 2017 Stephen Clark

Expect fewer missions to study planet Earth in NASA’s future, agency officials told an advisory group last week. A blueprint of the Trump administration’s proposed NASA budget would cancel four Earth science missions already in the agency’s portfolio and slash research funding geared toward future projects.