NASA, SpaceX launch first space-based air quality instrument

The instrument was built by Ball Aerospace and integrated onto Intelsat 40E by Maxar.

USA’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in collaboration with Elon Musk's SpaceX on April 7 launched an air-quality monitor called TEMPO or Tropospheric Emissions Monitoring of Pollution instrument.

"The NASA-Smithsonian instrument TEMPO is the first space-based tool to monitor major air pollutants hourly in high spatial resolution – down to four square miles – in a region stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Canadian oil sands to below Mexico City, encompassing the entire continental United States," said NASA in a media advisory.

Taking to Twitter, NASA said TEMPO is merely the size of a dishwasher and yet powerful enough to observe air pollutants across North America down to a resolution of 10 square km.

Further, it also confirmed a successful spacecraft separation.

Spacecraft separation confirmed! The Intelsat satellite hosting our @NASAEarth & @CenterForAstro#TEMPO mission is flying free from its @SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and on its way to geostationary orbit. pic.twitter.com/gKYczeHqV5

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— NASA (@NASA) April 7, 2023

Liftoff took place from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The instrument is a payload on the satellite Intelsat 40E. It was built by Ball Aerospace and integrated onto Intelsat 40E by Maxar.