NASA will continue its quest to study the elevation of the Earth’s surface and changes in the world’s ice caps when it launches the second Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat-2). With a bus built by Orbital ATK, the ICESat-2 satellite is designed to provide elevation data needed to determine ice sheet mass balance, as well as vegetation coverage information. It will deploy a sensor to provide topography and vegetation information around the globe to help researchers better understand ice sheet elevation changes and sea ice thickness. ICESat-2 is scheduled to launch in 2017 aboard a Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.