On July 23, a Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, carrying two University of Iowa-built satellites into orbit. The launch kicked off TRACERS, a $171.6 million NASA-funded mission – the largest externally funded research project in university history – to study how Earth’s magnetic field interacts with the sun’s charged particles.
Previously reported to have a total cost of $165.7 million, NASA awarded the University of Iowa a $115 million contract for TRACERS in 2019.
“The TRACERS mission has been in development for a long time and from a massive investment in space at the University of Iowa,” said David Miles, F. Wendell Miller associate professor in the UI department of physics and astronomy, and the leader of the mission. “It shows Iowa can develop a NASA mission of this caliber, and it shows our ability to contribute to space science in the future.”
Two satellites, each carrying five instruments designed and tested at Iowa, will orbit from pole to pole in a sun-synchronous path, gathering data on space weather and how it affects Earth.
At the launch event, dozens of Iowa scientists and their families traveled to Lompoc, the town nearest Vandenberg, which was delayed by a day. According to a news release from the UI, they wore TRACERS hats and shirts and cheered as the rocket rose against a coastal backdrop of hills and ocean.
“NASA’s heliophysics fleet helps to safeguard humanity’s home in space and understand the influence of our closest star, the sun,” said Joe Westlake, heliophysics division director at NASA headquarters. “By adding TRACERS to that fleet, we will gain a better understanding of those impacts right here at Earth.”
