NASA Successfully Launches Magnetosphere Multiscale Spacecraft

NASA has announced that it has successfully launched four new spacecraft this week. The spacecraft are called the Magnetosphere multiscale (MMS) spacecraft and will be positioned in Earth orbit. The spacecraft launched on top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on Thursday, March 12. The launch occurred at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 41.

The MMS are the first spacecraft dedicated to studying the phenomenon called magnetic reconnection. Scientists believe that magnetic reconnection is the catalyst for some of the most powerful explosions in the solar system.

Over the next several weeks, NASA scientists will be deploying the booms and antennas on the spacecraft as they orbit the Earth and being testing the scientific instruments aboard the spacecraft. After the tests are performed, the spacecraft will be placed into a pyramid formation to prepare for scientific observations.

Scientific observations using the spacecraft are expected to begin in September. The mission will provide the researchers with the first 3D views of reconnection occurring in the Earth's magnetosphere. To study the phenomenon the spacecraft will fly through the magnetosphere and directly through the magnetic reconnection phenomenon and gather information using the sensors that are 100 times faster than those used on any previous mission.

SOURCE: NASA