Payload

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory – 3 (OCO-3) is a NASA Earth System Science Program payload designed and built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The mission concept is to incorporate the OCO-2 mission’s spare grating spectrometer instrument into an ISS-compatible, external payload for measuring CO₂ from the station’s Low Earth Orbit. The payload was transported to ISS via the Space X Dragon and robotically installed on the Japanese Experiment Module’s Exposed Facility (JEM-EF). The mission is collecting science data for at least three years before it is robotically removed and disposed.

For more information about the International Space Station, please go to ISS.
For more information about the Japanese Experiment Module's Exposed Facility, please go to Japanese Experiment Module - Exposed Facility (JEM-EF)