Five years after a NASA satellite to track carbon dioxide plunged into the ocean after liftoff, the space agency is launching a carbon copy this time on a different rocket.

The USD 468 million mission is designed to study the main driver of climate change emitted from smokestacks and tailpipes.

Some of the carbon dioxide is sucked up by trees and oceans, and the rest is lofted into the atmosphere, trapping the sun's heat and warming the planet.

NASA suffered a major scientific and financial disaster in 2009 when a rocket carrying the original satellite plummeted into the waters off Antarctica minutes after soaring from Vandenberg Air Force Base along the central California coast.

Engineers then built a near-identical twin that was set to launch before dawn Tuesday.