NASA’s PACE spacecraft has successfully completed its journey from the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland to the Astrotech Spacecraft Operations facility near the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, November 14th, 2023.

Technicians and engineers were on hand ahead of time to prepare ground equipment for offloading and processing before fueling and final encapsulation. The mission is set to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida in early 2024.

PACE, short for Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, and ocean Ecosystem, is an ambitious mission aimed at clarifying how the ocean and atmosphere exchange carbon dioxide. It will also build upon NASA’s 20-plus years of global satellite observations of ocean biology and atmospheric aerosols while continuing key measurements related to air quality and climate.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center manages the PACE project while the agency’s Launch Services Program based at Kennedy Space Center is responsible for managing launch services for this crucial mission. The content of this article has been thoroughly reviewed according to Science X’s editorial process and policies ensuring credibility through fact-checking, trusted sources, and proofreading.