Magnetic-mapping mission resurrected.Four years ago, space physicists eagerly awaited the launch of Cluster, a quartet of spacecraft designed to fly in tandem to explore the magnetic region that surrounds Earth. On June 4, 1996, minutes after takeoff from the European Space Agency Arianespace, the first commercial space transportation company and a division of ESA, now conducts more than half of all commercial satellite launches. The foundation of ESA was laid with the formation of the European Space Research Organization (ESRO) in 1962 and of the European Launcher Development Organization (ELDO) in 1964.'s launch site in Kourou, French Guiana French Guiana Guiana (gēăn`ə, –än`–), region, NE South America. It faces the Atlantic Ocean on the north and east and is enclosed on the west and south within a vast semicircle formed by the linked river systems of the Orinoco, the Río Negro, and the lower Amazon. (gēăn`ə, –än`–), Fr. La Guyane française, officially Department of Guiana, French overseas department (2005 est. pop. 195,000), 35,135 sq mi (91,000 sq km), NE South America, on the Atlantic Ocean., the rocket carrying the four craft veered VEER - Variable Emergency Electrically Rotated sharply off course and blew up (SN: 7/27/96, p. 59). Without a hitch this summer, the space agency launched Cluster II, the successor to the failed mission. Launched in pairs from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on July 16 and Aug. 9, the four craft of Cluster II are now undergoing calibration tests. By early December, the agency says, all 44 instruments on Cluster II will be ready to begin observations. This will be the first time four identical satellites have ever been operated simultaneously. The quartet will generate the first detailed three-dimensional map of Earth's magnetosphere magnetosphere: see Van Allen radiation belts., the magnetic region that plays a key role in the aurora borealis aurora borealis (bôr'ēăl`ĭs) and aurora australis (ôstrā`lĭs), luminous display of various forms and colors seen in the night sky. and in shielding Earth from solar storms. |
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