[mmaimcal] Cloudsat is up there.

[Al Wootten]

 From the Post:

NASA yesterday launched two long-awaited satellites designed to provide 
the first three-dimensional views of Earth's clouds and help predict how 
cloud cover contributes to global warming.

CloudSat and CALIPSO lifted off at 6:02 a.m. EDT aboard a two-stage 
Boeing Delta II rocket from the new Space Launch Complex 2W at 
California's Vandenberg Air Force Base. Sixty-two minutes later, CALIPSO 
separated from the second stage, and CloudSat followed 35 minutes after 
that.

The two spacecraft will stay in a "parking orbit" for up to a month 
while their instruments are checked, then join the "A Train" of 
Earth-observation satellites in polar orbit at an altitude of 438 miles. 
Scientific operations will begin in about six weeks.