A group of space meteorological satellites took off on Wednesday morning to throw new eyes on solar storms that can produce amazing dawn but also scrambling communications and threaten astronauts in flight.
The three satellites climbed Kennedy Space Center shortly after sunrise on the same SpaceX rocket. They aimed at a belvedere in orbit of the sun at 1 million miles of the earth, each on its own separate mission.
In total, NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellites, as well as related costs, are about $ 1.6 billion. Joe Westlake of NASA calls him “ultimate cosmic carpooling” by sharing a rocket to save money.
The range of the range is the NASA cartography and interstellar acceleration probe, the first to be deployed. The mission “will use 10 scientific instruments to draw a complete image of what is rotating in space, high energy particles from the sun, magnetic fields in interplanetary space, to the remains of stars exploded in interstellar space”, declared NASA in a description of the IMAP.
The probe will examine the external limits of the heliosphere, the protective and solar gas bubble of the wind around our solar system, according to the space agency.
As a bonus, IMAP will also be able to provide a prior opinion from solar storms – a precious downstream of 30 minutes – for astronauts exploring the moon as part of the NASA Artemis program. The officials expect the observatory to be fully operational when four astronauts fly around the moon and next year.
SpaceX shared the video of the launch on Wednesday in an article on social networks, which showed IMAP arrows from the floor to the Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The Geocorona Carruthers Observatory Geocorona of NASA is also flying, focusing on the most external and brilliant atmosphere of the earth which extends far beyond the moon. He bears the name of the deceased scientific George Carruthers, who invented the ultraviolet telescope left on the moon by the astronauts of Apollo 16 in 1972.
The most recent observatory of the Noaa space weather will be pushed into the full -time forecast service and 24 hours a day. It will keep a work on the activity of the sun and will measure the solar wind to help protect the earth from threatening the lighting rockets.
Officials expect NASA satellites to be in position and operational at the start of next year, and the Noaa spacecraft in the spring.
NASA gives more than $ 879 million for its two missions, while the NOAA share is $ 693 million.
While NASA already has a fleet of spaceships observing the sun, the chief of the scientific mission, Nicky Fox, said that these more recent missions offer more advanced instruments that will provide more sensitive measures.
“The simple fact of being able to bring together all these elements to give us a much, much better vision of the sun,” she said.
John Raoux / AP 
The goal is to better understand the sun in order to better protect the earth, according to those responsible. As spectacular as they are, the lights of the north and southern will not be the objective of the missions.
During an overview of the next NASA Artemis mission around the Moon, scientific leaders said on Tuesday that these new spatial meteorological missions would improve forecasts and provide vital alerts if the main solar activities strike. If this happens, the four astronauts will take a temporary shelter in a storage area under the floor of the capsule to avoid increased radiation levels.
The launch this week took place during A surprisingly active period for the sunAccording to a recent study by two NASA scientists, who noted that the increase could affect space weather conditions as well as technology on earth. NASA officials have said that each of its satellite missions would aim to follow these models better, as well as Twin satellite traces This spacex helped NASA launched several months ago to study how the solar wind with electric load interacts with the magnetic field of the earth.
“Spatial weather predictions are essential to support the spacecraft and astronauts from the NASA Artemis campaign, because understanding of the space environment is an essential element in the attenuation of the exposure of astronauts to spatial radiation,” NASA said in a press release.
