Picture of the IMAGE mission patch
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Image courtesy of NASA
NASA To IMAGE Magnetosphere
News story originally written on February 19, 1999
NASA is going to launch the Imager for Magnetopause -to-
Aurora
Global Exploration (IMAGE). IMAGE will take pictures of the Earth's
magnetosphere for the first
time. The mission will launch on February 15, 2000.
IMAGE will follow a very elliptical orbit around the Earth. It will be
the closest at 600 miles above the surface. It will then swing out to
almost 27,000 miles above the surface. From this distance, the
instruments on IMAGE will be able to see the Earth's entire magnetosphere
at the same time.
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