NASA Launches SAMPEX Spacecraft to Study Materials That Formed Earth

NASA launched the first of its new, bargain-basement spacecraft Friday, sending a lightweight Explorer satellite to study the kind of raw material that formed the sun and solar system.

“This is a significant contribution to science in a package you can wrap your arms around,” said Orlando Figueroa, Small Explorer Project manager.

The spacecraft will collect “matter from the sun and interstellar space that’s just as important scientifically as a rock from the moon,” said program manager David Gilman.

The awkwardly named Solar, Anomalous and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer satellite (SAMPEX) was carried into near-polar orbit by a 75-foot, four-stage Scout rocket launched at 7:19 a.m. from Vandenberg Air Force Base, 140 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

The 348-pound spacecraft was 4 1/2 feet tall and 2.8 feet wide during launch. Fifteen minutes later, it reached its elliptical orbit 342 miles to 419 miles above Earth. The spacecraft then deployed its solar panels, extending its width to 6.9 feet.

The mission will cost about $75 million to $80 million, including research and development expenses that will benefit future Small Explorer Project satellites, Figueroa said.

SAMPEX will collect data about high-energy, subatomic particles that bathe Earth. These include particles from the sun, galactic cosmic rays from exploding stars and cosmic rays from just outside our solar system.

SAMPEX will help scientists understand “where we came from and what the materials were that helped form our own star,” said Daniel Baker, the mission’s chief scientist. “It’s taking us back to the origins of the material that formed ourselves and our solar system.”