23 July 2025 year Fr. 18:13 (UTC) from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, USA, using a launch vehicle «Falcon 9 Block 5» the US launch vehicle was launched «TRACERS and others".
TRACERS (Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites) is a pair of identical satellites, which will orbit the Earth in tandem, one by one. Their main goal is to study the process of magnetic reconnection and its effect on the Earth's atmosphere. Magnetic reconnection occurs, when solar activity interacts with Earth's magnetic field, which leads to the release of energy and a change in the structure of the magnetic lines. This phenomenon plays a key role in space weather.
Essentially, TRACERS will help scientists understand, like solar flares, coronal mass ejections and other solar events affect our planet. This is important, because such events can affect satellites, communication systems, power grid and even the safety of astronauts. The satellites will work in the region of the polar caps, where the Earth's magnetic field is exposed to the solar wind, making these areas ideal for observing reconnection.
Space vehicles are also on board the rocket (KA) SEOPS Epic Athena, Cloud power Cloud power 4, Maverick Space Systems‘ REAL, Tyvak‘ SUFFER and York Space Systems‘ Bard.
Bard (PExT Demo) — demonstration of advanced satellite communication.
Bard mass payload 140 kg was created for the flight tests of the Polylingual Experimental Terminal (PExT) — new satellite communication technology, developed in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the NASA SCaN program (Space Communications and Navigation). The main goal is to demonstrate the ability to switch between government and commercial satellite relay networks in real time. This is the first step of its kind in NASA's new communications architecture, in which the main role will be played by commercial satellites. The spacecraft will "understand" different communication protocols — like a "multilingual translator" between different satellite networks. This is an important step to increase the flexibility and sustainability of the space infrastructure. The manufacturer of the satellite is York Space Systems. The operator is NASA.
Athena EPIC is a kind of laboratory in orbit. Her task is to test the new SensorCraft platform, developed by NovaWurks. The peculiarity of this system is that, that the satellite platform itself (the so-called HISat) performs not only the role of the "body" of the satellite, and part of the "brain", operating scientific equipment. A lightweight version of the CERES instrument is on board, designed to measure the Earth's energy balance. The whole structure is designed like this, so that it could be launched quickly and with minimal costs. Athena EPIC was a collaboration between NASA, The US Space Force and NOAA are a real example of that, how government structures join forces for innovation.
REAL - satellite, created by scientists from Dartmouth College. His mission is to observe that, as parts of the Earth's radiation belts (mainly electrons and protons) lose their energy, crashing into the atmosphere. This is important for understanding the behavior of radiation near the Earth, what, in turn, affects the safety of satellites and even manned flights. REAL is a science project in a compact 3U CubeSat shell, but with a very serious task.
Skykraft‑4 – represents several satellites at once, which work as harbingers of a new era in air traffic control. They will receive signals from aircraft from orbit (ADS‑B systems) and test the transmission of information via VHF radio communication. This could fundamentally change the approach to flight monitoring — especially over oceans and in remote regions, where there are simply no ground radars.
SUFFER — compact satellite of 12U format, developed by Tyvak. Its mission is to test two-way communication in the K/Ka band directly with ground terminals. It is like a "live communication session" between the satellite and the earth, which will help to evaluate, to what extent such systems are ready for commercial or scientific operation.
According to the CCS