The United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket carrying the Aquarius/SAC-D spacecraft lifts off from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
NASA’s Aquarius, the primary instrument on the SAC-D observatory, will provide unprecedented global maps of ocean surface salinity to better understand the links between ocean circulation, the global cycling of freshwater, and climate.
Image credit: NASA/ Bill Ingalls
June 10, 2011