NASA’s MMS spacecraft achieve tightest flying formation ever
Submit on Monday, October 19th, 2015 22:58
On 15 October 2015, a NASA mission broke its own record: the four satellites of its Magnetospheric Multiscale mission are now flying at their smallest separation, the tightest multi-spacecraft formation ever flown in orbit. The four spacecraft are just 10 km apart, flying in what’s called a tetrahedral formation, with each spacecraft at the tip of a four-sided pyramid. The close formation is all the more impressive as the spacecraft speed along at up to 24,000 km per hour and – with their booms extended – each spacecraft covers as much area as a professional baseball stadium.
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