After the successful launch of the first two Cluster satellites — Salsa and Samba — on 16 July, followed by a perfect insertion into their operational orbits, scientists around the world are eagerly awaiting the launch of the second Cluster pair from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Lift-off for the next duo, FM 5 (Rumba) and FM 8 (Tango), is currently scheduled for 13:13 CEST / 17:13 Baikonur time, on 9 August. Following their release from the Soyuz-Fregat launch vehicle provided by the French-Russian Starsem consortium, the satellites will participate in an almost identical series of complex orbital manoeuvres to their predecessors.
By 15 August, they should have joined their companions to form a unique space quartet. This mini-armada will spend the next two years exploring the interaction between the charged particles swept along in the solar wind and Earth's magnetic shield — the magnetosphere.
By flying in tetrahedral formation through this magnetic bubble and into interplanetary space, the Cluster quartet will provide the most detailed data yet on the Sun-Earth connection and the physical processes taking place between 19,000 and 119,000 kilometres above our heads.
Cluster Instrument Sites
Imperial College, London (Fluxgate Magnetometer)
Mullard Space Science Laboratory (Plasma Electron and Current Experiment)
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (Cluster Joint Science Operations Centre)
