February 16, 2007
NASA Scrubs 5-Satellite Launch
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Strong upper level winds forced NASA to abort plans to launch five satellites on a single rocket Friday from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, officials said.
NASA will attempt to launch the five science satellites again Saturday. The probes are all part of a mission to figure out the source of powerful geomagnetic substorms in the Earth's atmosphere."The strong winds would have affected the rocket's path," said Rani Gran, a NASA spokeswoman.
Scientists hope the $200 million Themis mission unravels the mystery behind these storms that can damage communications satellites, disable power grids and shoot high levels of radiation down on spacewalking astronauts and airplane passengers flying over northern latitudes.
Scientists believe they also periodically intensify the spectacular light shows seen in the northern lights, or aurora borealis.
"For 30 years, people have tried to understand what causes the onset of these substorms," said Vassilis Angelopoulos of the University of California, Berkeley, principal investigator for the Themis mission. "Finding out the origin ... has been so elusive."
If all goes as planned, it will be the most probes NASA has ever launched on a single rocket. However, last year a joint venture of Taiwan and the U.S. National Science Foundation launched six weather microsatellites on one rocket.
The five Themis probes will separate from the Delta 2 rocket more than an hour after launch. After separation, scientists at a University of California at Berkeley ground station will begin initiating signals with each satellite.
If successful, the mission will end the debate scientists hold as to when the substorms are triggered.
One theory holds that the substorms start about 50,000 miles above the Earth's equator, about a sixth of the way to the moon, when the electromagnetic turbulence disrupts the flow of intense space currents.
The other theory is that the substorms are triggered about 100,000 miles above the equator with the spontaneous conversion of magnetic energy into heat. Particle acceleration then triggers the substorm energy.
"This is how we're going to utilize four out of the five probes, to nail that timing question and resolve the location question, and distinguish between the two competing theories," Angelopoulos said.
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Associated Press writer Mike Schneider in Cape Canaveral contributed to this report.