SpaceX to Launch NASA's SWOT Satellite

SWOT on top of a Falcon 9 | Credit: NASA HQ Photo

On Friday, December 16 at 6:46 am ET/3:46am PT/11:46 am UTC, SpaceX will launch NASA's Surface Water Ocean Topography satellite, or SWOT. on a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4W (SLC-4W) at Vandenburg Space Force Base in California. SWOT is a satellite jointly developed by NASA and cnes (The French Space Agency) in partnership with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA). It is a next-generation spacecraft designed to study the amount of water in Earth's oceans, lakes, and rivers. They aim to make the first global survey of Earth's water and measure how the bodies of water change over time. The Falcon 9 first stage supporting this mission, which previously flew on NROL-87, NROL-85, SARah-1, and two Starlink missions, will land on Landing Zone 4. This will be the 178th orbital launch attempt of 2022, 200th SpaceX mission, and the 191st Falcon 9 launch. You can watch the launch live below.