Tim Dunn, NASA launch manager, Kennedy Space Center, left, Vernon Thorp, United Launch Alliance program manager, NASA Missions, and Kent Kellogg, SMAP project manager, JPL, right, discuss the planned launch of the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission, NASA’s first Earth-observing satellite designed to collect global observations of surface soil moisture and its freeze/thaw state, during a press briefing, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015, at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. SMAP will provide high resolution global measurements of soil moisture from space. The data will be used to enhance scientists' understanding of the processes that link Earth's water, energy, and carbon cycles.