On the 24th of February, 2009, David Crisp was in the control center at Vandenberg Air Force base counting down the seconds for the Orbiting Carbon Observatory to launch.
It was a project he had led for a decade - and it was the first NASA mission that would measure atmospheric carbon dioxide from space.
Hundreds of millions of dollars and years of work had gone into that moment, but David and his team had yet to face their greatest challenge...
This week, Climate Now is releasing a two-part series on NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) missions, including the saga of its multi-decadal journey to completion and the impact it could have on the fight to end climate change.
David Crisp, Senior Research Scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, shares his experience as the Principal Investigator for the OCO missions with Climate Now in this episode.
Measuring CO2 from space: a journey of perseverance, heartbreak, and scientific breakthrough with David Crisp