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Additional Media

Launch of Mission to Study Earth's Atmosphere and Oceans (Official NASA Broadcast)

Our Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission will study what makes Earth so different from every other planet we study: life itself. Three-qua...

SpaceX Falcon 9 Launches NASA's PACE-Payload

Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) is a NASA Earth-observing satellite mission that will continue and advance observations of global ocean color, biogeochemistry, and ecology, as well as...

Launch of PACE to Study Earth's Atmosphere and Ocean

Livestream on X

SpaceX

SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft. The company was founded in 2002 to revolutionize space technology, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets.

PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem)

Circle Image

Overview

Destination: Sun-Synchronous Orbit
Mission: Earth Science

Sun-Synchronous Orbit Space Launch Complex 40 Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA Probability: 95%
B1081 - Landing Zone 1

PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) is a NASA Earth observation satellite mission. It will make global ocean color measurements to provide extended data records on ocean ecology and global biogeochemistry (e.g., carbon cycle) along with polarimetry measurements to provide extended data records on clouds and aerosols.

Telemetry

Launch trajectory and telemetry simulations provided by Flight Club - a rocket launch simulator and orbital trajectory visualiser for all things space!

Updates

Cosmic_Penguin • Feb. 8, 2024, 6:53 a.m.

Launch success, spacecraft power positive.


Cosmic_Penguin • Feb. 8, 2024, 6:33 a.m.

Liftoff.


LL2 • Feb. 8, 2024, 5:54 a.m.

Livestream has started


Cosmic_Penguin • Feb. 8, 2024, 5:53 a.m.

Tweaked T-0.


Cosmic_Penguin • Feb. 6, 2024, 11:43 p.m.

Scrubbed for the day due to high winds.


Falcon 9

Family:
Configuration: Block 5

Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX for the reliable and safe transport of satellites and the Dragon spacecraft into orbit. The Block 5 variant is the fifth major interval aimed at improving upon the ability for rapid reusability.

See Details
Specifications
  • Stages
    2
  • Length
    70.0 m
  • Diameter
    3.65 m
  • Fairing Diameter
    5.2 m
  • Launch Mass
    549.0 T
  • Thrust
    7607.0 kN
Family
  • Name
    Falcon 9
  • Family
  • Variant
    Block 5
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    Falcon 9 Block 5
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
    $52000000
  • Low Earth Orbit
    22800.0 kg
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
    8300.0 kg
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity

Booster Info


B1081

Status: Active


Type: Core
Flight Proven: Yes
First Flight: August 26, 2023
Last Flight: January 3, 2026
Flights: 21
Landings Attempted: 21
Landings Successful: 21
Previous B1081 Flights

Landing Information

The Falcon 9 first stage B1081 has landed back at the launch site after its 4th flight.

Result: Successful Return to Launch Site landing at Landing Zone 1.

SpaceX

SpaceX

(SpX)

CEO: Elon Musk Founded: 2002 Successes: 606 Failures: 15 Pending: 120

Agency Type:

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by entrepreneur Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs and enabling the colonization of Mars. SpaceX operates from many pads, on the East Coast of the US they operate from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and historic LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center. They also operate from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, usually for polar launches. Another launch site is being developed at Boca Chica, Texas.

INFO WIKI

Related News

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Keeping Up with PACE: Summary of the 2025 PAC3 Meeting

Introduction Launched in Feb. 2024, NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission is a cornerstone of Earth system science designed to deepen our understanding of how these environmental and biological components come tog…

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By Air and by Sea: Validating NASA’s PACE Ocean Color Instrument

In autumn 2024, California’s Monterey Bay experienced an outsized phytoplankton bloom that attracted fish, dolphins, whales, seabirds, and – for a few weeks in October – scientists. A team from NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley…

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NASA’s PACE Mission Reveals a Year of Terrestrial Data on Plant Health

A lot can change in a year for Earth’s forests and vegetation, as springtime and rainy seasons can bring new growth, while cooling temperatures and dry weather can bring a dieback of those green colors. And now, a novel type of NASA visual…

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Carissa Arillo: Testing Spacecraft, Penning the Owner’s Manuals

Flight operations engineer Carissa Arillo helped ensure one of the instruments on NASA’s PACE mission made it successfully through its prelaunch testing. She and her group also documented the work rigorously, to ensure the flight team had …

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Systems Engineer Noosha Haghani Prepped PACE for Space

Throughout the life cycles of missions, Goddard engineer Noosha Haghani has championed problem-solving and decision-making to get to flight-ready projects. Name: Noosha HaghaniTitle: Plankton Aerosol Clouds and Ecosystem (PACE) Deputy Miss…

Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

Space Launch Complex 40


Falcon 9
Success
6 days, 15 hours ago
CSG-3
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

CSG-3 is an Earth observation satellite for the Italian Space Agency, part of a reconnaissance constellation using synthetic aperture radars operatin…


Long March 7A
Success
1 week, 2 days ago
Shijian 29 A-B
201 - Wenchang Space Launch Site, People's Republic of China

2 satellites officially described as for "demonstration of new technologies for spatial targets detection" purposes.


Long March 4B
Success
1 week, 3 days ago
Tianhui 7
Launch Area 94 (SLS-2 / 603) - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

A satellite officially described as for cartography purposes, details TBD.


Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M
Success
1 week, 5 days ago
AIST-2T 01 & 02
Cosmodrome Site 1S - Vostochny Cosmodrome, Siberia, Russian Federation

A pair of Russian optical Earth observation satellites built by the Progress Rocket Space Centre for obtaining stereo images of the Earth's surface, …


Long March 3B/E
Success
2 weeks ago
Fengyun-4C
Launch Complex 2 (LC-2) - Xichang Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

China's geostationary meteorological satellite program FY-4 (Feng Yun 4) is the second generation of chinese geostationary meteorological satellites.


Long March 8A
Success
2 weeks ago
SatNet LEO Group 17
Commercial LC-1 - Wenchang Space Launch Site, People's Republic of China

A batch of 9 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites for the Chinese state owned SatNet constellation operated by the China Satellite Network Group.…


Soyuz 2.1a
Success
2 weeks, 1 day ago
Obzor-R No.1
43/4 (43R) - Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation

Note: Assignment of payloads to this launch is uncertain. The Russian Obzor-R satellite is a planned X-band radar earth observation satellite desi…


LVM-3 (GSLV Mk III)
Success
2 weeks, 2 days ago
BlueBird Block 2 #1
Satish Dhawan Space Centre Second Launch Pad - Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India

AST SpaceMobile’s Block 2 BlueBird satellites are designed to deliver up to 10 times the bandwidth capacity of the BlueBird Block 1 satellites, requi…


Long March 12A
Success
2 weeks, 3 days ago
Demo Flight
Long March 12A Pad - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

First test launch of CASC/SAST’s Long March 12A rocket, with a dummy payload. The rocket’s 1st stage attempted to land on a landing pad about 300 km …


HANBIT-Nano
Failure
2 weeks, 3 days ago
Spaceward
HANBIT Pad - Alcântara Space Center, Federative Republic of Brazil

Maiden orbital launch attempt for the South Korean start-up Innospace and its HANBIT-Nano small launch vehicle. Onboard this flight are five small sa…