“GoreSat” dates back to Gore’s concern to monitor the Earth, but it was put in storage by Bush. Now called DSCOVR, and in partnership with NOAA, NASA, and the USAF, she will observe space weather from the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrangian point, 1,500,000 kilometers (930,000 mi) from Earth.
17 years in the making, Al Gore just penned an article in SciAm on this mission:
“Long delayed, DSCOVR is an observational mission to the Lagrangian point 1, or “L1,” a unique point between the sun and Earth where the gravitational pull of each sphere is equally balanced by the other. As it co-orbits the sun with Earth, DSCOVR will have a constant view of the Earth with the hemisphere facing the satellite fully illuminated by the sun as Earth rotates. From this unique vantage point, DSCOVR will capture and beam back to Earth a continuous stream of images of our planet similar to the historic image taken on December 7, 1972, during the Apollo 17 mission – which remains the only such image we have more than 42 years later. Not coincidentally, it is still the most published photograph in history.”
Congrats to SpaceX on their first deep space launch!
• more SpaceX photos from today’s launch.
Stage separation, with booster falling away to the left:
Here is a cool image just after stage separation as the cold gas thrusters on the top of the booster fire laterally to flip it 180° so the main engines can take it back toward the launch site:
The fairings falling away from the nose, exposing the satellite payload:
Mission control, with Elon front and center
The booster coming in vertical over the stormy sea, grid fins extended… within 10m of the target:
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