EarthCARE lifts off

ESA’s EarthCARE satellite lifted off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, US, 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.