WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - NASA has launched its TRACERS mission, which will soon begin studying how Earth's magnetic shield protects the planet from the effects of space weather. Short for Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites, the twin TRACERS spacecraft lifted off Wednesday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
Riding along with TRACERS aboard the Falcon 9 were NASA's three small satellites - Athena EPIC (Economical Payload Integration Cost), PExT (Polylingual Experimental Terminal), and REAL (Relativistic Electron Atmospheric Loss) missions - to demonstrate new technologies and gather scientific data. These three missions were successfully deployed, and mission controllers will work to contact them over the coming hours and days, NASA said.
Ground controllers for the TRACERS mission established communications with the second of the two spacecraft about 3 hours after it separated from the rocket. During the next four weeks, TRACERS will undergo a commissioning period during which mission controllers will check out their instruments and systems.
Once cleared, the twin satellites will begin their 12-month prime mission to study a process called magnetic reconnection, answering key questions about how it shapes the impacts of the Sun and space weather on daily lives.
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