NASA Satellites Encapsulated for TRACERS Launch

Technicians encapsulate the black twin satellites of NASA’s TRACERS (Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites) mission within a payload fairing atop a shiny metallic stack of several other rideshare payloads at the Astrotech Space Operations facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The TRACERS mission is a pair of twin satellites that will study how Earth’s magnetic shield — the magnetosphere — protects our planet from the supersonic stream of material from the Sun called solar wind. Photo credit: SpaceX

Final prelaunch operations are underway for NASA’s TRACERS (Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites) mission. Technicians encapsulated the twin satellites within a payload fairing on Friday, July 18, inside the Astrotech Space Operations facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

The fairing will protect the mission during launch through the atmosphere and before being released in space. The TRACERS mission is a pair of twin satellites that will study how Earth’s magnetic shield — the magnetosphere — protects our planet from the supersonic stream of material from the Sun called solar wind. As they fly pole to pole in a Sun-synchronous orbit, the two TRACERS spacecraft will measure how magnetic explosions send these solar wind particles zooming down into Earth’s atmosphere — and how these explosions shape the space weather that impacts our satellites, technology, and astronauts.

The 57-minute launch window opens Tuesday, July 22, at 2:13 p.m. EDT (11:13 a.m. PDT) on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg on a commercial rideshare mission.

SpaceX will provide live coverage beginning about 15 minutes before launch on the company’s website and at @SpaceX on X.

Also launching on this flight will be three additional NASA-funded payloads: the Athena EPIC (Economical Payload Integration Cost) SmallSat supported by SEOPS, the PExT (Polylingual Experimental Terminal) technology demonstration supported by York Space Systems, and the REAL (Relativistic Electron Atmospheric Loss) CubeSat, supported by Maverick Space Systems.

This mission is led by David Miles at the University of Iowa with support from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. NASA’s Heliophysics Explorers Program Office at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the mission for the agency’s Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The University of Iowa, Southwest Research Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, and University of California, Berkeley, all lead instruments on TRACERS that will study changes in the Earth’s magnetic field and electric field. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, manages the Venture-class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare contract.

Follow @NASAKennedy on X and Facebook for updates on the mission. For more information about the mission visit the TRACERS mission website.