NASA, SpaceX successfully launch air quality sensor over North America

April 6 (UPI) -- SpaceX successfully launched NASA's air pollution monitoring instrument TEMPO into orbit from Cape Canaveral in Florida early Friday.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Space Launch Complex 40 at 12:30 a.m., EDT, at the start of the 119-minute launch window.

The launch sent NASA's Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution into geostationary orbit over the equator attached to an Intelsat 40e communication satellite. Once in place and active, TEMPO will monitor the presence of air pollutants over North America.

NASA confirmed about a half hour after liftoff that the payload had successfully separated from the spacecraft and was flying from the rocket toward geostationary orbit about

SpaceX also said that its Falcon 9 first-stage rocket had successfully land on A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship in the Atlantic Ocean. the launch was the rocket's fourth.

"TEMPO will be measuring pollution and air quality across greater North America on an hourly basis during the daytime, all the way from Puerto Rico up to the tar sands of Canada," said Kevin Daugherty, TEMPO's project manager at NASA's Langley Research Center, according to Spaceflight Now.

The instrument will also help measure air quality in major cities.