NASA’s new spacecraft to sniff carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere reached orbit on Wednesday after launching from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The $468 million Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 mission had to be put off when Tuesday’s launching attempt was halted with just 46 seconds left in the countdown. Technicians spent the day replacing a defective valve in the system that sprays water beneath the rocket during liftoff.

The Delta 2 rocket carrying the satellite lifted off at 5:56 a.m. Eastern time on Wednesday and rose to 429 miles above earth. The success comes five years after the loss of the mission’s original satellite: its clamshell nose cone failed to separate, and the spacecraft splashed into the ocean off Antarctica. At the end of 2009, the Obama administration gave the go-ahead to build a replacement.

Over the next 10 days, flight controllers will check out the spacecraft, and will then nudge it over three weeks into its final destination, 438 miles up in an orbit passing over the North and South Poles, where it will take its position at the front of a parade of other earth-observing spacecraft. The mission is to last at least two years.