A cluster of space weather satellites blasted off Wednesday morning to cast fresh eyes on solar storms that can produce stunning auroras but also scramble communications and threaten astronauts in flight.<\/p>\n
The three satellites soared from the Kennedy Space Centre shortly after sunrise on the same SpaceX rocket.<\/p>\n
They aimed for a Sun-orbiting lookout 1.6 million kilometres from Earth, each on its own separate mission.<\/p>\n
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SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is the world\u2019s first orbital class reusable rocket. (Reuters\/ Joe Skipper)<\/p>\n
Altogether, the satellites from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), plus related costs, are worth about $US1.6 billion ($2.4 billion).\u00a0<\/p>\n
NASA’s director of Heliophysics, Joe Westlake, calls it “the ultimate cosmic carpool” by sharing a rocket to save money.<\/p>\n
Heading the line-up is NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, the first to be deployed.<\/p>\n
To the moon and back: NASA launch on track for early 2026<\/a><\/p>\n NASA’s flagship program to return humans to the moon is on track for a flight to the moon and back early next year.<\/p>\n It will scrutinise the outer limits of the heliosphere, the protective, solar wind-driven bubble of gas around our solar system.<\/p>\n As a bonus, IMAP will be capable of providing advance notice of solar storms \u2014 a valuable 30-minute heads-up \u2014 for astronauts exploring the Moon under NASA’s Artemis program.<\/p>\n Officials expect the observatory to be fully operational by the time four astronauts fly around the Moon and back next year.<\/p>\n NASA’s smaller Carruthers Geocorona Observatory is also flying, set to focus on Earth’s outermost, glowing atmosphere that extends well beyond the Moon.<\/p>\n