Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP) — A swarm of space weather satellites exploded Wednesday morning, creating stunning auroras, as well as communicating and giving fresh eyes to the solar storms that threaten astronauts.
The three satellites spiked from the Kennedy Space Center shortly after sunrise on the same SpaceX rocket. They headed for a sun-surrounded observation deck, one million miles (1.6 million kilometers) from Earth.
Overall, the costs associated with NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellites are worth around $1.6 billion. NASA’s Joe Westlake calls it the “ultimate space carpool” by sharing rockets and saving money.
Heading towards the lineup is NASA’s interstellar mapping and acceleration probes, which will be deployed first. It scrutinizes the outer limits of Heliosphere, a protective, solar wind-driven bubble of gas around the solar system.
As a bonus, IMAP can provide advance notifications for solar storms, a valuable 30-minute head-up, for astronauts exploring the moon under NASA’s Artemis program. Authorities hope that the observation deck will be fully operational by the time the four astronauts return next year and the next year.
The NASA’s small Carruthers Geocorona Observatory is also flying, focusing on the outermost shining atmosphere of the Earth, stretching far beyond the moon. It is named after the late scientist George Carthurs, who invented the ultraviolet telescope left on the moon by astronauts from the Apollo 16 in 1972.
NOAA’s latest space weather stations are pushed full-time into a 24-hour forecast service. It monitors the activity of the sun, measures solar wind, and helps prevent the Earth from threatening flares.
Officials hope that NASA satellites will be in position and operation by the beginning of next year, and NOAA spacecraft will be in operation by spring.
NASA kicks over $879 million on two missions, while NOAA shares at $693 million.
Although NASA already has a fleet of spaceships that are obsessed with the sun, Science Mission Chief Nicky Fox said these new missions offer more advanced instruments that offer more advanced measurements.
“You can put it all together and make the sun look much better,” she said.
Authorities say the goal is to better understand the sun to better protect the planet. What’s spectacular is that northern and southern lights are not the focus of the mission.
During a preview of NASA’s upcoming Artemis Mission Around the Moon, science officials said Tuesday that these new spatial weather missions will strengthen forecasts and provide important alerts if key solar activity attacks. If that happens, the four astronauts take temporary shelter in the storage area below the capsule floor to avoid high levels of radiation.
