Liftoff of NASA's ICESat-2

A United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket lifts off at 6:02 a.m. PDT (9:02 a.m. EDT) from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California carrying NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2). The spacecraft will measure the height of a changing Earth, one laser pulse at a time, 10,000 laser pulses a second. The satellite will carry a single instrument, the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System. ICESat-2 will help scientists investigate why, and how much Earth's frozen and icy areas, called the cryosphere, is changing.