NASA's IMAGE Satellite Scheduled for Launch...03/24/00
 
NASA is about to launch the first spacecraft dedicated to imaging the Earth's magnetosphere -- an invisible magnetic shield that protects our planet from the solar wind. The "Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration," or IMAGE, will blast off on a Delta II 7326 rocket during an eight-minute launch window that opens at 3:35 p.m. EST (12:35 p.m. PST) on March 25.

"This spacecraft is going to revolutionize magnetospheric physics and space weather forecasting," says Jim Green, an IMAGE co-investigator at the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. "Right now we don't even know what our magnetosphere really looks like. We've created models based on point-like in situ measurements by various spacecraft. The problem is that these models are cartoons! They're put together from 30 years worth of observations taken at different spots and times."

Full Story: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast24mar_1m.htm

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