NASA's twin spacecraft will go to the ends of the Earth to combat climate change

An illustration of the twin cubesats of NASA's PEFIRE mission which will monitor heat lost to space from Earth's poles.

NASA is preparing to send two tiny twin spacecraft to the ends of the Earth to collect data that'll aid in the fight against climate change.

The shoebox-sized satellites, or "Cubesats," in the Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment (PREFIRE), will blast off during the Spring of 2024. Reaching an altitude of between 292 and 403 miles (470 and 650 kilometers) over Earth, the two spacecraft will sit in near-polar orbits, crisscrossing each other in the atmosphere.