WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

The four identical observatories comprising NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission (MMS) soon will be encapsulated in an Atlas payload fairing in a clean room at the Astrotech Space Operations facility in Titusville, Florida. This break from spacecraft processing was built into the schedule to allow media time to photograph the observatories before launch. MMS is an unprecedented NASA mission to study magnetic reconnection, a fundamental process that occurs throughout the universe. MMS is a NASA mission led by the Goddard Space Flight Center. The instrument payload science team consists of researchers from a number of institutions and is led by the Southwest Research Institute. Launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is managed by Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Services Program. Liftoff is targeted for 10:44 p.m. EDT March 12. To learn more about MMS, visit www.nasa.gov/mms.