Press Event

NASA TRACERS Media Teleconference

NASA will hold a media teleconference to share information about the agency’s upcoming Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites, or TRACERS, mission.

The TRACERS mission is a pair of twin satellites that will study how Earth’s magnetic shield — the magnetosphere — protects our planet from the supersonic stream of material from the Sun called solar wind. As they fly pole to pole in a Sun-synchronous orbit, the two TRACERS spacecraft will measure how magnetic explosions send these solar wind particles zooming down into Earth’s atmosphere — and how these explosions shape the space weather that impacts our satellites, technology, and astronauts.

Also launching on this flight will be three additional NASA-funded payloads. The Athena EPIC (Economical Payload Integration Cost) SmallSat, led by NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, is designed to demonstrate an innovative, configurable way to put remote-sensing instruments into orbit faster and more affordably. The Polylingual Experimental Terminal technology demonstration, managed by the agency’s SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) program, will showcase new technology that empowers missions to roam between communications networks in space, like cell phones roam between providers on Earth. Finally, the Relativistic Electron Atmospheric Loss (REAL) CubeSat, led by Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, will use space as a laboratory to understand how high-energy particles within the bands of radiation that surround Earth are naturally scattered into the atmosphere, aiding the development of methods for removing these damaging particles to better protect satellites and the critical ground systems they support.

Updates

LL2 • July 17, 2025, 2:50 p.m.

Official Webcast by NASA Video has started

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Nosu • July 15, 2025, 6:51 a.m.

Adding event

Related Information

Falcon 9 Block 5 | TRACERS

SpaceX | United States of America
Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA
July 23, 2025, 6:13 p.m.

Status: Launch Successful

Mission:

NASA's Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS) mission, consisting of two identical satellites that will orbit Earth in tandem (one following the other), will help understand magnetic re-connection and its effects in Earth’s atmosphere. Magnetic re-connection occurs when activity from the Sun interacts with Earth’s magnetic field. By understanding this process, scientists will be able to better understand and prepare for impacts of solar activity on Earth. Hitchhiking small satellites: * Athena EPIC (Economical Payload Integration Cost) * Polylingual Experimental Terminal (PExT) * Relativistic Electron Atmospheric Loss (REAL)

Sun-Synchronous Orbit B1081 - Flight Proven ( ) Landing Zone 4

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