The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) is launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, on December 15 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Center-4 East. SWOT is the first satellite mission that will observe nearly all water on Earth’s surface, measuring the height of water in the planet’s lakes, rivers, reservoirs, and the ocean. The mission is a collaboration between NASA and the French space agency Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES), with contributions from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the UK Space Agency.
