Article Posted on : - Jun 23, 2010

An artist's conception of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2. The mission, scheduled to launch in February 2013, will be the first spacecraft dedicated to studying atmospheric carbon dioxide, the principal human-produced driver of climate change. NASA/JPL photo

PASADENA, CALIFORNIA (BNS): NASA has selected Orbital Sciences Corp to launch the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) mission.

The spacecraft will fly in February 2013 aboard a Taurus XL 3110 rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, NASA said.

OCO-2 is NASA's first mission dedicated to studying atmospheric carbon dioxide. The spacecraft will replace OCO-1, lost during a launch vehicle failure in 2009.

Carbon dioxide is the leading human-produced greenhouse gas driving changes in Earth's climate.

OCO-2 will provide the first complete picture of human and natural carbon dioxide sources and "sinks," the places where the gas is pulled out of the atmosphere and stored. It will map the global geographic distribution of these sources and sinks and study their changes over time.

The total cost of the OCO-2 launch services is approximately $70 million, according to NASA.

The estimated cost includes the task ordered launch service for a Taurus XL 3110 rocket, plus additional services under other contracts for payload processing, OCO-2 mission-unique support, launch vehicle integration, and tracking, data and telemetry support.