The team has received signal from Intelsat 40e satellite. Commissioning activities for TEMPO will begin in late May or early June. Researchers expect the first public data to be available in October.
TEMPO will observe the air quality over North America during daylight hours, providing critical insights into air pollution in North America.
The Falcon 9 rocket’s second stage has reached the point of payload separation and its engine has been cut off. Intelsat 40e and the TEMPO instrument will separate from the Falcon 9 rocket’s second stage, deploying the spacecraft, which will continue on to its geostationary orbit.
The Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage has landed on a SpaceX drone ship.
Coming up next, Intelsat 40e, along with the TEMPO instrument, will separate from the Falcon 9 rocket’s second stage and begin settling into orbit.
The Falcon 9 rocket’s first-stage engines have finished their burn, and the first stage has separated from the vehicle. As the second stage continues its journey with Intelsat 40e and the TEMPO instrument, the first stage will aim for landing on a SpaceX drone ship.
The second stage Merlin engine has ignited to begin boosting Intelsat 40e to low-Earth orbit.
Liftoff! At 12:30 a.m. EDT, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off the pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, beginning its approximately hour-long journey to deliver the Intelsat 40e, along with NASA’s Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument, into orbit.
Coming up at about two minutes and 30 seconds after liftoff, the main engine in the rocket’s first stage will shut off, followed by the first and second stages separating.
Hello from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida! A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the Intelsat 40e and NASA’s Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument aboard, stands ready for liftoff at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Complex 40. TEMPO will be the first satellite instrument to make hourly daytime observations of air quality over North America. These observations will improve the scientific data record on air pollution in North America.
Launch is scheduled for no earlier than 12:30 a.m. EDT.
This launch is a cross-country effort. Launch controllers at the Florida spaceport are working in concert with teams at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, and SpaceX’s control center in Hawthorne, California.
Stay right here for more launch coverage or tune in to NASA TV or the agency’s website for live launch coverage starting at 12:00 a.m. EDT.
