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MMS Launched on March 12, 2015 at 10:44pm.

MMS Launched on March 12, 2015 at 10:44pm.
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Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) Mission Updates – September 4, 2015

MMS Officially Begins Science Phase

NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale, or MMS, mission successfully completed commissioning activities on Sept. 1, 2015, and is now in full science mode.

During the next six months, the four MMS spacecraft will fly in a tetrahedral formation that will skim Earth's magnetopause near every apogee, sampling that boundary and the myriad of plasma processes that occur there. The primary focus for the MMS science team will be one of the most important and least understood of those processes: Magnetic Reconnection. Magnetic reconnection occurs when magnetic fields around Earth connect and disconnect, explosively releasing energy.

Newsroom

03.14.16MMS Celebrates a Year in Space
01.22.16NASA's MMS Spotted from Tokyo
12.17.15MMS Delivers Promising Initial Results
10.16.15NASA's MMS Spacecraft Achieve Tightest Flying Formation Ever
08.11.15BARREL Team Arrives in Sweden for Balloon Mini-Campaign
07.29.15NASA's MMS Formation Will Give Unique Look at Magnetic…
06.30.15NASA Signs Scientific and Education Agreements with Brazil
06.05.15NASA Scientist to Discuss “Understanding Magnetic Storms” at…
04.28.15The Fearsome Foursome: Technologies Enable Ambitious MMS…
04.22.15NASA Goddard Team Sets High Flying Record with Use of GPS

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All 4 Spacecraft

All 4 MMS spacecraft  disassembled.Look at some photos of the MMS spacecraft getting stacked and ready for environmental tests. Although they will be disassembled again later, these images are a preview of what will be the final flight configuration of the MMS fleet.
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Observatory Integration

OBS3 image 2


MMS Spacecraft in formation

Earth’s magnetosphere
as a laboratory to study
the microphysics of
magnetic reconnection

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Multimedia

This animation shows the orbits of Magnetospheric Multiscale mission.

MMS Orbit Animation

This animation shows the orbits of Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission, a Solar Terrestrial Probes mission comprising of four identically instrumented spacecraft that will study the Earth’s magnetosphere.

>> View Movie