Deploying the SMAP spacecraft
Yesterday morning at 9:22 a.m. EST, Cape Canaveral witnessed a new launch.
An unmanned Delta II rocket launched into space, the NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive spacecraft (SMAP), which has the mission to measure how much water is in Earth’s soil because this value can help with the forecasting and tracking of the global climate change.
The tiny amount of soil moisture links Earth’s overall environmental systems like water, energy and carbon cycles as well as determines whether particular regions are afflicted by drought or flooding.
Kent Kellogg, the SMAP project manager, stated in the conference after the launch, that the SMAP spacecraft is in excellent condition, all systems are functional and everything is on schedule.
The observatory instruments will wait 11 days after the launch and only after this period of time will be turned on and will start the measurements.
The auxiliary payload (ELaNa X) that flew aboard the Delta II rocket was also deployed on time.
ELaNa X contains four ELaNa CubeSats and they were also ejected on time and are flying free now.