WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

Inside the Astrotech Payload Processing Facility on Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, an overhead crane is attached to the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) spacecraft. CALIPSO will be lifted and transferred to a workstand. CALIPSO will undergo state-of-health checks, and electrical ground-support equipment testing. CALIPSO will fly in combination with the CloudSat satellite to provide never-before-seen 3-D perspectives of how clouds and aerosols form, evolve, and affect weather and climate. CALIPSO and CloudSat will join three other satellites in orbit to enhance understanding of climate systems. The launch date for CALIPSO/CloudSat is no earlier than Aug. 22.