KSC-2014-2991

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – Technicians clean some of the hardware for NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 mission, or OCO-2, in the Astrotech Payload Processing Facility on Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The spacecraft soon will be transported to Space Launch Complex 2 for encapsulation in the Delta II payload fairing. Launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket is scheduled for 5:56 a.m. EDT on July 1. OCO-2 is NASA’s first mission dedicated to studying atmospheric carbon dioxide, the leading human-produced greenhouse gas driving changes in Earth’s climate. OCO-2 will provide a new tool for understanding the human and natural sources of carbon dioxide emissions and the natural "sinks" that absorb carbon dioxide and help control its buildup. The observatory will measure the global geographic distribution of these sources and sinks and study their changes over time. To learn more about OCO-2, visit http://oco.jpl.nasa.gov. Photo credit: NASA/30th Space Wing, U.S. Air Force