Getting your player ready...
WASHINGTON — NASA heads into 2010 with the bittersweet assignment of retiring the space shuttle after nearly three decades. But there also are launches of three satellites aimed at better understanding Earth’s climate and oceans and the sun.
Two probes will examine the concentration of salt in the oceans and the presence of aerosol particles, such as soot, in the atmosphere.
“It is a quest for understanding of the Earth system and (to improve) our ability to predict how our wonderful environment and our planet is going to change in the future,” said Michael Freilich, head of NASA’s Earth-science division.
