NASA’s PACE spacecraft completed its journey from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, to the agency’s Astrotech Spacecraft Operations Center near the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, Nov. 14. Engineers and technicians arrived at the front of the spacecraft to prepare ground equipment for evacuation and processing before fueling and final pressurization.

PACE, which stands for Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud and Ocean Ecosystem, is scheduled to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Spaceport 40 at the Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, in early 2024. The mission will help understand how the ocean and atmosphere exchange carbon dioxide, improve NASA’s 20-plus years of global satellite observations of ocean biology and atmospheric aerosols, and maintain key measurements of air quality and climate.

Project STEPPING It is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The agency’s Launch Program, based at Kennedy Space Center, is responsible for managing the launch of the PACE mission.