View all 1 records related to this platform

STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) is a 2-year NASA mission
employing two nearly identical space-based observatories to provide the very
first, 3-D "stereo" images of the sun to study ... the nature of coronal mass
ejections. These powerful solar eruptions are a major source of the magnetic
disruptions on Earth and a key component of space weather, which can greatly
affect satellite operations, communications, power systems, the lives of humans
in space, and global climate.

STEREO is the third mission in NASA's Solar Terrestrial Probes Program. The
twin observatories launched aboard a single Boeing Delta II rocket from Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., on Oct. 25, 2006, at 8:52 p.m. EDT.

STEREO is sponsored by NASA Headquarters' Science Mission Directorate,
Washington, D.C. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Solar Terrestrial Probes
Program Office, in Greenbelt, Md., manages the mission, instruments and science
center. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), in
Laurel, Md., designed and built the spacecraft and will operate the twin
observatories for NASA during the mission.

The two spacecraft are launched to drift slowly away from the Earth in opposite
directions at about 10 degrees per year for the lagging spacecraft and 20
degrees per year for the leading one. Optimal longitudinal separation of about
sixty degrees is achieved after two years. Afterwards the separation gradually
increases beyond the design lifetime of two years with the possibility of
extended mission observations at larger angles. Science instruments selected
for STEREO include the Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric
Investigation (SECCHI) for extreme ultraviolet (EUV), white-light
coronographic, and heliospheric imaging, the STEREO/WAVES (SWAVES)
interplanetary radio burst tracker, the In situ Measurements of Particles and
CME Transients (IMPACT) investigation for in-situ sampling the 3-D distribution
and plasma characteristics of solar energetic particles and the interplanetary
magnetic field, and the PLAsma and SupraThermal Ion and Composition (PLASTIC)
experiment to measure elemental and charge composition of ambient and CME
plasma ions. STEREO data recorded and stored onboard each spacecraft will be
downlinked through the NASA Deep Space Network on a daily schedule. Real-time
space weather data will be continuously transmitted through a separate beacon
system to NASA and non-NASA receiving stations.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stereo/main/
http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/
http://stereo.jhuapl.edu/
http://stereo-ssc.nascom.nasa.gov/