VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — A rocket carrying a NASA satellite lit up the predawn skies Wednesday on a mission to track atmospheric carbon dioxide, the chief culprit behind global warming.
The Delta 2 rocket blasted off from California at 2:56 a.m. and released the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 satellite in low-Earth orbit 56 minutes later, bringing relief to mission officials who lost a similar spacecraft five years ago.
The flight was ‘‘a perfect ride into space,’’ said Ralph Basilio, the OCO-2 project manager, at a post-launch press conference. Power-supplying solar arrays deployed, initial checks showed the spacecraft was healthy, and two-way communications were established, he said.
NASA tried in 2009 to launch a satellite dedicated to studying carbon dioxide. A satellite plunged into the ocean off Antarctica after a hardware failure with the Taurus XL rocket.