NASA to Deploy Ozone Measurement Payload to ISS

NASA plans to launch an instrument designed to measure Earth’s ozone as part of SpaceX‘s 10th cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station.

The agency said Saturday the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III on ISS  payload will launch with the SpaceX-built Dragon spacecraft this month from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

SAGE III will be attached to ISS using the station’s Canadarm2 primary robotic arm to help monitor the Earth’s health through climate and ozone levels.

Brooke Thornton, SAGE III mission operations manager, will lead a team that will remotely operate the instrument from the ground.

The project was led by Langley Research Center and included contributions from Ball Aerospace and Technologies, Thales Alenia Space, European Space Agency, Johnson Space Center, Kennedy Space Center and Marshall Space Flight Center.

NASA implemented the initial SAGE instrument in 1979, deployed SAGE II in 1984 and launched the first SAGE III payload in 2001.

Data from SAGE missions paved the way for the signing of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, the agency noted.