Cluster is an magnetospheric research project, consisting of a constellation of four identical satellites. Part of the first Cornerstone Mission in the European Space Agency's long-term space science programme, the Cluster II satellites were built to replace the original Cluster mission, which was aborted after Ariane-5G's maiden flight in June 1996 failed to launch the satellites. The mission's objective is to research the Earth's magnetosphere and its interaction with the solar winds, via four identical satellites flying in formation which take simultaneous measurements to provide the most detailed three-dimensional study of changes and processes taking place in near-Earth space. The four satellites were launched in 2000 on two Soyuz-U Fregat rockets.
Elliptical OrbitCHAMP (Challenging Mini-Satellite Payload) is a German small satellite mission for geoscientific and atmospheric research and applications, managed by GFZ. MITA carries the payload NINA-2 for the study of solar and galactic cosmic rays. The detector used in this mission is identical to the one already flying on the Russian satellite Resurs-O1 4 in a 840 km sunsynchronous orbit, but makes use of the extensive computer and telemetry capabilities of MITA bus to improve the active data acquisition time.
Sun-Synchronous OrbitThe Service Module SM (Zvesda, DOS 8 (Dolgovremennaya Orbitalnaya Stanziya 8), 17KSM) was the first fully Russian contribution to the International Space Station and serves as the early cornerstone for the first human habitation of the station.
Low Earth Orbit