NASA blasts off laser satellite

NASA’s most advanced space laser satellite blasted off Saturday on a mission to track ice loss around the world and improve forecasts of sea level rise as the climate warms.

Cloaked in pre-dawn darkness, the $1 billion, half-ton ICESat-2 launched aboard a Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force base in California at 6:02 am (1302 GMT).

“Three, two one, liftoff!” said a launch commentator on NASA television. “Lifting ICESat-2 on a quest to explore the polar ice sheets of our constantly changing home planet.”

The launch marks the first time in nearly a decade that NASA has had a tool in orbit to measure ice sheet surface elevation across the globe.