NASA's Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment. or SORCE. spacecraft was
launched off the coast of Kennedy Space Center in Florida on January 25. 2003 on a Pegasus XL rocket.
The L-1011 carrier aircraft dropped the Pegasus over the Atlantic Ocean. where it fired its first stage rocket motor. beginning its approximately 13 minute voyage into orbit.
SORCE's mission: Provide NASA with precise measurements of solar radiation.
Part of NASA's Earth Observing System. the SORCE satellite orbits the Earth accumulating solar data. which is used to help explain and predict
the effect of the Sun's radiation on the Earth's atmosphere and climate.
NASA has extended the SORCE mission through 2012. four years past its planned end date of January 2008.