A Delta II rocket launches with the Aquarius/SAC-D spacecraft payload from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. on Friday, June 10, 2011.   The joint U.S./Argentinian Aquarius/Satélite de Aplicaciones CientÃ­ficas (SAC)-D mission will map the salinity at the ocean surface, information critical to improving our understanding of two major components of Earth's climate system: the water cycle and ocean circulation.
<bdi><a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q71171454" class="extiw" title="d:Q71171454"><span title="American photographer">Bill Ingalls</span></a>
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Taken on 10 June 2012
<a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="https://www.dvidshub.net/image/722852">https://www.dvidshub.net/image/722852</a>; see also <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=50961">http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=50961</a>