The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

NASA deploys satellite swarm

How's the 'space weather'?

SaaS data loss: The problem you didn’t know you had

NASA has dispatched a trio of experimental satellites into orbit. Each of the fun-sized microsatellites carries miniaturised kit for investigating Earth's magnetic field.

A Pegasus rocket blasted off from a carrier plane over Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, yesterday. The launch was delayed from 11 March by technical gremlins.

Each microsatellite weighs about 25kg when fully juiced and is about the size of a 13-inch TV. The microsats were released in a 'string of pearls' formation a few metres apart. Over the next few weeks they'll spread out up to 200km apart, enabling them to make coordinated measurements of the magnetosphere over the next 90 days.

The magnetosphere acts as a bubble, shielding Earth from potentially harmful solar radiation, sometimes known as 'space weather'.

The drive behind the pilot mission is to demonstrate the power and cost savings of a distributed approach for future, more in-depth missions.®

Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Backup/Recovery

More from The Register

 breaking news
You've seen the Large Hadron Collider. Now comes the HUGE Hadron Collider
International Linear Collider ready to rock and roll
Headbangers have a gas, gas, gas in mosh pits
Boffins say heavy metal crowds behave like The Vapours
Hubble spies unlikely planet being born in hostile neighborhood
Hoovering a cloud of sand 7.5 billion miles from a tiny star
 breaking news
Jaguar to open new car-making factory in Blighty (virtually)
Britain still makes stuff, it's just not real any more...
 breaking news
China's second woman 'naut blasts off for coupling in HEAVEN
Wang and pals test the cosmic waters for Chinese space station
Scientists investigate 'dark lightning' threat to aircraft passengers
One stormy flight could give lifetime radiation dose
 breaking news
Chinese 'nauts prep for next coupling in Heaven, clear way for new station
Second woman taikonaut and pals test tech for China's own orbiting platform
Boffins hide cute kitty behind invisibility shield
No polarisation or microwaves needed, yet the cat and fish disappear
 breaking news