Tag: Heliophysics
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Live coverage: Japan’s enhanced Epsilon booster blasts off
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of an Epsilon rocket rocket with Japan’s Exploration of Energization and Radiation in Geospace, or ERG, mission. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter. JAXA’s live video stream begins at 1040 GMT (5:40 a.m. EST).
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Research platform launched to brave Van Allen radiation belts
The Epsilon rocket blasted off at 1100 GMT (6 a.m. EST; 8 p.m. Japan Standard Time) Tuesday. Credit: JAXA Japan launched a research satellite Tuesday to repeatedly fly through the Van Allen belts high above Earth, helping scientists sort out how chaotic geomagnetic storms form and evolve and potentially endanger astronauts, spacecraft and infrastructure vital…
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Japan prepares launch of satellite to probe Earth’s radiation belts
Artist’s concept of the ERG spacecraft in orbit, backdropped by an false-color illustration of Earth’s magnetosphere. Credit: JAXA Japanese engineers aim to launch an upgraded Epsilon booster Tuesday with a satellite to study the origins of powerful geomagnetic storms, phenomena that trigger picturesque polar auroras but could disrupt communications and and damage electric grids. The…
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Timeline of events during Epsilon rocket’s launch with the ERG mission
The ground track for the Epsilon rocket’s launch with Japan’s ERG mission. Credit: JAXA An Epsilon rocket is set to send a Japanese space weather research probe into an orbit stretching more than 20,000 miles (33,000 kilometers) above Earth to investigate how the Van Allen radiation belts shrink and swell with variable solar activity. The Exploration of…
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Preview: Atlas 5 rocket to launch NASA magnetic field study
CAPE CANAVERAL — A $1.1 billion science investigation involving four formation-flying satellites circling the Earth, each one identical, fitted with 25-instrument sensors and measuring 94 feet tall by 369 feet wide when fully deployed, will share a single Atlas 5 rocket launch Thursday night from Cape Canaveral to probe explosions in the magnetic field with…
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Four satellites mated to Atlas 5 rocket
CAPE CANAVERAL — Four NASA satellites that will create a constellation of formation-flying spacecraft were placed aboard their shared United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket Friday. Liftoff of the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission, or MMS, is targeted for March 12 at 10:44 p.m. EDT (0244 GMT), the opening of a 30-minute nighttime launch opportunity. Already…
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Magnetic field laboratory being readied for launch
Credit: Walter Scriptunas II TITUSVILLE — A stack of four satellites, each one carrying 25 science sensors and together will perfect the art of formation flying, is being packaged inside an Atlas 5 rocket nose cone in preparation for mounting atop the booster next week. The Magnetospheric Multiscale mission, or MMS, will explore explosions in…