Brooke Thornton, Mission Operations Manager, NASA’s Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA

On February 19, The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) III instrument launched aboard a cargo capsule to the International Space Station. SAGE III — equipped with a telescope, grating spectrometer, and charge coupled device detector array — will use the light from the Sun and Moon to provide a profile of the atmosphere, including the Earth’s ozone layer. The technology will launch aboard the Falcon Dragon 9, a rocket developed by the Hawthorne, CA-based SpaceX.