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