Life on Earth is fundamentally impacted by thunderstorms, from the life-sustaining fresh water they supply, to the life-threatening severe weather they produce. Thunderstorms also play a critical role in driving large-scale atmospheric circulations thereby establishing regional climates, and the high clouds produced by thunderstorms play a critical role in modulating atmospheric temperatures. In spite of the critical role of thunderstorms in our weather and climate system, accurately predicting thunderstorms and extreme weather using our current numerical prediction models remains extremely challenging. We need global observations of thunderstorms if we are to address such challenges. This talk will present a new NASA satellite mission specifically designed to observe thunderstorm intensity and extreme weather from space.