International SWOT Mission Launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base (Launch Recap)

Highlights from the Dec. 15, 2022, launch of the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite, a mission led by NASA and the French space agency Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES). SWOT lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 3:46 a.m. PST (6:46 a.m. EST).

The mission will make the first global survey of nearly all water on Earth’s surface and address some of the most pressing climate change questions of our time.