On Aug. 25, 1997, NASA launched the Advanced Composition Explorer, or ACE satellite to study energetic particles travelling through space.
It lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a Delta II rocket and spent the next three and a half months making its way to its orbital post near the L1 Lagrangian point, a point of gravitational equilibrium between Earth and the sun. There, the spacecraft is monitoring the stream of accelerated particles coming from the sun known as the solar wind. ACE provides 24/7 continuous coverage of the solar wind, which lets scientists know when to expect geomagnetic storms that can disrupt communication satellites and power grids on Earth.
It lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a Delta II rocket and spent the next three and a half months making its way to its orbital post near the L1 Lagrangian point, a point of gravitational equilibrium between Earth and the sun. There, the spacecraft is monitoring the stream of accelerated particles coming from the sun known as the solar wind. ACE provides 24/7 continuous coverage of the solar wind, which lets scientists know when to expect geomagnetic storms that can disrupt communication satellites and power grids on Earth.
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TechTranscript
00:00On this day in space.
00:03In 1997, NASA launched the Advanced Composition Explorer, or ACE satellite,
00:08to study energetic particles traveling through space.
00:11It lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a Delta II rocket
00:14and spent the next three and a half months making its way to its orbital post
00:17near the L1 Lagrangian point, a place where the gravitational pull
00:20between the Earth and the Sun is at equilibrium.
00:23There, the spacecraft monitors the stream of accelerated particles coming from the Sun,
00:26known as the solar wind.
00:28ACE provides 24-7 continuous coverage of the solar wind,
00:31which lets scientists know when to expect geomagnetic storms
00:34that can disrupt communication satellites and power grids on Earth.
00:37And that's what happened on this day in space.
00:40♪♪♪