Sentinel-6B satellite launches aboard Falcon 9 rocket
(NBC, KYMA) - A SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket carried the Sentinel-6B satellite into orbit Sunday night after lifting off from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base.
The Sentinel-6B is an ocean-mapping satellite that will help measure sea levels around the world and is part of the European Union's Copernicus, an Earth-observing program.
In a release concerning the Sentinel-6B mission, the European space agency says data shows sea levels have risen about four inches in the past 25 years, calling it a "key consequence of climate change."
Sunday's launch set a benchmark for SpaceX. It's the 500th orbital mission utilizing a used rocket.
The 3,175-pound Sentinel-6B satellite was deployed about 57-minutes after launch at an altitude of 821-miles while the Falcon 9's first stage returned to a landing pad about nine minutes after liftoff.
