5 Satellites Launch on Rocket
5 Satellites Launch on Rocket; Mission Aims to Find
Source of Substorms
February 17, 2007
| |
| A Delta II rocket lifts off from the Cape Canaveral
Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Saturday, Feb.
17, 2007. The rocket is carrying the THEMIS (Time and
History of Events and Macroscale Interactions During Substorms)
payload. (AP Photo/Peter Cosgrove) |
By JIM ELLIS
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Feb 17, 2007 (AP)— Five
science satellites blasted off on a single rocket into a golden
sunset Saturday on a mission to figure out the source of powerful
geomagnetic substorms in the Earth's atmosphere.
The launch at 6:01 p.m. from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
came a day after it was scrubbed Friday after strong upper winds
forced officials to wait 24 hours, said Rani Gran, NASA spokeswoman.
Scientists hope the $200 million Themis mission unravels the
mystery behind the storms that can damage communications satellites,
disable power grids and shoot high levels of radiation down
on spacewalking astronauts and airplane passengers flying over
northern latitudes.
Scientists believe they also periodically intensify the spectacular
light shows seen in the northern lights, or aurora borealis.
"For 30 years, people have tried to understand what causes
the onset of these substorms," said Vassilis Angelopoulos of
the University of California, Berkeley, principal investigator
for the Themis mission. "Finding out the origin … has been so
elusive."
It is the most probes NASA has ever launched on a single rocket.
However, last year a joint venture of Taiwan and the U.S. National
Science Foundation launched six weather microsatellites on one
rocket.
Little more than an hour after blast off, the first of the
five probes separated from a Delta II rocket followed three
seconds later by the four other probes. About two hours after
launch, scientists at a University of California at Berkeley
ground station initiated signals with each probe, officials
said.
Each satellite will magnetically map North America every four
days for about 15 to 20 hours in tandem with 20 ground stations.
"Everything went picture-perfect," said NASA spokeswoman Jessica
Rye.
Scientists plan to begin receiving data from the probes in
about two months and continue receiving information for many
years, officials said.
The mission, if successful, will end the debate scientists
hold as to when the substorms are triggered.
Article at: abcnews.go.com
|
