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George Diller, NASA Launch Commentator: From
Vandenberg Air Force Base in

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California, this is Delta Launch Control at
T-minus one hour, 41 minutes, 13 seconds

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and counting.

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Our launch countdown is underway at Space
Launch Complex-2 at

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Vandenberg Air Force Base.

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With our built-in holds, we're slightly more
than two hours away from the launch of the

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Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 spacecraft,
also called OCO-2.

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It is NASA's first mission

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dedicated to studying atmospheric carbon dioxide,
the leading human-produced

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greenhouse gas driving changes in Earth's
climate.

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OCO-2 will provide a new tool for understanding
the human and natural sources of

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carbon dioxide and emissions and the so called
natural sinks that absorb carbon dioxide

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and help control its build up.

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The observatory will measure the global geographic
distribution of these sources and

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sinks and study their changes over time.

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The spacecraft's final circular orbit will
be 438

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nautical miles at a inclination of 98.2 degrees.

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It is at a circular polar orbit circling the

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Earth every 99 minutes.

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Our countdown is going smoothly.