Watch the replay of the EarthCARE launch coverage. The video includes streaming of the event at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre in Germany and footage of liftoff from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, US.
EarthCARE was lofted into orbit on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on 29 May at 00:20 CEST (28 May, 15:20 local time).
Developed as a cooperation between ESA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer satellite carries a set of four instruments to make a range of different measurements that together will shed new light on the role that clouds and aerosols play in regulating Earth’s climate. With the climate crisis increasingly affecting our planet, EarthCARE is poised to provide data for climate research, to improve the accuracy of climate models and to support numerical weather prediction.
EarthCARE is the most complex of ESA’s trailblazing Earth Explorer research missions – missions that deliver critical information to understand how our world functions and the impact that human activity is having on natural processes.