SpaceX launches Satellite to save us from the sun
After several aborted attempts, the Cape Canaveral weather finally cooperated Wednesday and SpaceX was able to deliver the DSCOVR satellite to space in a Falcon rocket.
DSCOVR, or Deep Space Climate Observatory is the long-term result of a brainstorming session 17 years ago; it was initially dreamed up by a group that included Vice President and environmental champion Al Gore; it has long been known as GoreSat.
Despite that jokey nickname, it's a crucial piece of weather machinery that should help protect the planet from the worst excesses of an angry sun.
You may not even know there's such a thing as space weather, but the ebbs and flows of magnetic solar energy could have a more serious impact on the planet than anything else in our lifetime.
That's why DSCOVR will sit a million miles out in deep space, further out than nearly every other satellite, and give us early warning of magnetic storms from that innocent-looking fusion bomb in the sky.
"DSCOVR will be a point of early warning whenever it detects a surge of energy that could trigger a geomagnetic storm destined for Earth,” said Stephen Volz, assistant administrator for the NOAA Satellite and Information Service, in a press release.
“According to the National Academies of Sciences, a major solar storm has the potential to cost upwards of $2 trillion, disrupting telecommunications, GPS systems, and the energy grid."
The satellite needs to sit a million miles away from us, and 92 million miles from the sun, because that's a magical place known as the Lagrange point 1 where all the gravitational forces of sun and Earth are in balance.
DSCOVR, like the handful of NASA satellites that are already at the Lagrange point, should have no problem maintaining a stable orbit.
The satellite, which lifted off at 6:03 p.m. ET, won't just be monitoring the solar winds for increased activity. It'll also point its cameras back at Earth, monitoring ozone levels and aerosols in the atmosphere.