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.
by Joji Xavier
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