This is an artist's concept of the MMS observatory fleet with rainbow magnetic lines. (Credit: NASA)

Provided by Susie Hendrix, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Following a successful launch at 10:44 p.m. EDT Thursday, NASAs four Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft are positioned in Earths orbit to begin the first space mission dedicated to the study of a phenomenon called magnetic reconnection. This process is thought to be the catalyst for some of the most powerful explosions in our solar system.

The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft onboard launches from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 41, Thursday, March 12, 2015, in Florida. (Credit: NASA)

The spacecraft, positioned one on top of the other on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 421 rocket, launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. After reaching orbit, each spacecraft deployed from the rockets upper stage sequentially, in five-minute increments, beginning at 12:16 a.m. Friday, with the last separation occurring at 12:31 a.m. NASA scientists and engineers were able to confirm the health of all separated spacecraft at 12:40 a.m.

I am speaking for the entire MMS team when I say were thrilled to see all four of our spacecraft have deployed and data indicates we have a healthy fleet, said Craig Tooley, project manager at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

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Over the next several weeks, NASA scientists and engineers will deploy booms and antennas on the spacecraft, and test all instruments. The observatories will later be placed into a pyramid formation in preparation for science observations, which are expected to begin in early September.

After a decade of planning and engineering, the science team is ready to go to work, said Jim Burch, principal investigator for the MMS instrument suite science team at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio (SwRI). Weve never had this type of opportunity to study this fundamental process in such detail.

The mission will provide the first three-dimensional views of reconnection occurring in Earths protective magnetic space environment, the magnetosphere. Magnetic reconnection occurs when magnetic fields connect, disconnect, and reconfigure explosively, releasing bursts of energy that can reach the order of billions of megatons of trinitrotoluene (commonly known as TNT). These explosions can send particles surging through space near the speed of light.

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NASA's MMS prepping to study magnetic reconnection phenomenon