NASA’s next trip to space will be a rideshare mission with nine other satellites sharing a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, but it has been delayed until Wednesday due to airspace concerns.
The original launch window was scrubbed about 45 seconds before liftoff on Tuesday, and the FAA cited a regional power outage in the Santa Barbara area as the cause. The outage disrupted telecommunications at the Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center, which manages air traffic over the Pacific Ocean.
Despite the delay, NASA’s twin Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS) will launch on Wednesday at 11:13 a.m. PDT (2:13 p.m. EDT). The satellites will study the interplay between the solar wind and Earth’s magnetosphere.
TRACERS consists of two identical, octagonal satellites that weigh less than 440 pounds each. They will fly in a Sun-synchronous orbit, repeatedly passing through regions known as cusps where Earth’s magnetic field opens over the North and South Poles.
The mission aims to observe how quickly reconnection changes and evolves by comparing data collected by each satellite. Reconnection is when the solar wind from the Sun reaches Earth’s magnetosphere, driving phenomena like the Northern Lights and potentially disrupting electrical grids.
Nine other satellites will accompany TRACERS on the Falcon 9 rocket, including payloads from NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and an Australian company promising air traffic control services. The mission is part of NASA’s Small Explorers program and has a $170 million cost.
The spacecraft were built by Millennium Space Systems, now a Boeing company, and carry six instruments to measure plasma, magnetic fields, and other phenomena. A final inspection will take place before launch on Wednesday.
Despite the delay, SpaceX assures that all preparations are in place for liftoff, which is expected to be followed by five landings of the Falcon 9 booster at Landing Zone 4.
Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2025/07/22/live-coverage-spacex-to-launch-nasas-tracers-satellites-on-rideshare-falcon-9-rocket-launch-from-vandenberg-sfb