![](https://thesolarsystemandbeyond.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/launch.jpg?w=500)
(Photo Credit:NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Following delays, NASA’s OCO-2 mission has now successfully blasted off aboard an United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket. Launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California early on Wednesday morning, OCO-2 will begin a landmark mission to survey carbon dioxide gas in Earth’s atmosphere once it arrives in orbit.