NASA's Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere, Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) satellite is set to be launched by a Boeing Delta II booster from Vandenberg AFB, California, this month.
The $227 million TIMED mission will study the least explored region of the Earth's atmosphere at 60-180km (40-110 miles) altitude to determine its temperature, density, winds, emissions and energy balance to better understand the influence on the region of solar and human activities. These impact on communications, tracking, spacecraft lifetimes and degradation of spacecraft materials in low Earth orbit.
The 587kg (1,290lb) spacecraft is the first mission of the Sun-Earth connection part of NASA's Solar Terrestrial Probes programme. Also flying with TIMED is the joint NASA-French space agency CNES's Jason spacecraft. Jason-1 is an oceanography mission to monitor global ocean circulation, intended to discover the tie between the oceans and atmosphere, and is a follow-on to the US/French TOPEX/ Poseidon mission.
Source: Flight International
