Delta II THEMIS

This was taken this past February. You would be surprised at how many launches take place not only in the USA but globally. I know I was until I moved to Cape Canaveral. A description of this mission is below and yes, that’s a bird flying towards the rocket.

The 126 foot tall Delta II 7925-10 three-stage launch vehicle will be utilizing six Alliant Techsystems ground start solid motors, with three additional solids being air lit. The first stage core of the Delta II is powered by a Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne RS-27A main engine operates on liquid oxygen and kerosene (RP-1).

An Aerojet AJ10-118K engine powers the second stage and burns Aerozine-50 fuel with nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer. The third stage is powered by a Thiokol’s Star 48B solid-propellant stage. THEMIS is contained with a 10 foot diameter payload fairing.

THEMIS (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms) comprises of five identical satellites, which will work together to impartially distinguish between two disparate phenomenological and plasma-physical models of substorm onset in order to solve the mystery of where and when substorms start in the Earth’s magnetosphere.

THEMIS’ five identical spacecraft with identical instruments will line up along the sun-Earth line and track the flow of energy from its point of explosive generation in space into the aurora.

After their release from the launch vehicle, the ground controllers will use the spacecraft’s own propulsion systems to place them in ‘resonant’ highly elliptical orbits, with periods one, two and four days. Every four days the spacecraft will align at distances ranging from 1/6 to 1/2 the way to the moon.

This enables the spacecraft to track the flow of particles and the progression of space currents from one point to another, and identify the elusive substorm point of origin.

Tagged as: Cape Canaveral • Delta II • Launches • Rockets • Space • THEMIS