NASA's Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites ( TRACERS ) Mission

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Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS) is a orbiter mission tasked to study the origins of the solar wind and how it affects Earth. TRACERS was proposed by Craig A. Kletzing at the University of Iowa who served as Principal Investigator until his death in 2023. David M. Miles at the University of Iowa was named as Principal Investigator in his stead. The TRACERS mission received US$115 million in funding from NASA.

Mission will study  how Earth’s magnetic shield protects our planet from the effects of space weather..

Short for Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites, the twin TRACERS spacecraft lifted off at 11:13 a.m. PDT (2:13 p.m. EDT) Wednesday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

The twin satellites will fly one behind the other — following as closely as 10 seconds apart over the same location — and will take a record-breaking 3,000 measurements in one year to build a step-by-step picture of how magnetic reconnection changes over time.

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 our daily lives.

NASA News

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