NASA's ATom Mission is Flying Around the World in 26 Days
It's not a strict circumnavigation of the world, but NASA's Atmospheric Tomography, or ATom, mission to fly down the Pacific Ocean then up the Atlantic is about as close as it gets. Beginning July 28, 2016, NASA's flying laboratory aboard the DC-8 aircraft will journey with 42 scientists and operations crew on a 26-day journey from nearly pole to pole and back again. The first of four deployments that will take place over the next three years, they'll be measuring a suite of more than 200 gases as well as airborne particles from the remotest parts of the atmosphere to better understand the processes that govern how various greenhouse gases cycle around the world.
Mission: