The exhaust chute beneath the launch tower on Space Launch Complex 2 on Vandenberg Air Force Base in California is readied to support a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket launch in July, carrying NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 mission, or OCO-2, to orbit. The observatory will collect precise global measurements of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere and provide scientists with a better idea of the chemical compound's impacts on climate change. Scientists will analyze this data to improve our understanding of the natural processes and human activities that regulate the abundance and distribution of this important atmospheric gas.