NASA and launch provider United Launch Alliance (ULA) successfully launched the civil space agency’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite Wednesday at 5:56 a.m. EDT from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., according to the Air Force.
The launch took place one day after an initial launch attempt was scrubbed near launch time due to a failure in the pad water system at Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg. The system, in addition to providing sound suppression of acoustic waves, also protects a launch pad flame duct. 
NASA spokesman Alan Buis said June 28 OCO-2 is slated to achieve an initial orbit 429 miles from Earth. Buis said during the next 10 days following launch, OCO-2 will go through a checkout process and then begin three weeks of maneuvers that will place it in its final, 438-mile, near-polar operational orbit.
The launch took place on a Delta II rocket. OCO-2 will be NASA’s first dedicated Earth remote sensing satellite to study atmospheric carbon dioxide from space, or as NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) calls it, watch Earth breathe from space. Orbital Sciences [ORB] designed, built and tested the satellite at its manufacturing facility in Gilbert, Ariz., for JPL.
ULA is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Boeing [BA].