The satellite – which will study the absorption of sunlight by carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere – is the third attempt to get a CO2-measuring craft into space by the American space agency. The OCO-1 in 2009 and follow-up Glory in 2011 both failed when they weren't able to complete their first stage separation.

NASA had to abandon the scheduled launch of the OCO-2 yesterday, when there were problems with the launchpad water flow.

The blast-off was particularly difficult to get right because US rocket boffins only had a 30-second window to get the sat into orbit to join the A-Train, a constellation of five international Earth-observing crafts that fly in close formation, constantly monitoring the planet.