And liftoff for NOAA’s new deep space solar monitoring satellite! A new mission to monitor solar activity is now making its way to an orbit one million miles from Earth. The Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 6:03 p.m. EST Wednesday from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. DSCOVR, a partnership among the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NASA and the U.S. Air Force, will provide NOAA space weather forecasters more reliable measurements of solar wind conditions, improving their ability to monitor potentially harmful solar activity. Image Credit: NASA #dscovr #nasa #noaa #satellite #space #science #sun #weather #spacecraft #launch #solarstorm #solarwind #nature #solarsystem #instacool