ESA Science & Technology - The Cluster-II Mission Rising from the Ashes

Publication date: 02 April 2000

Authors: Cluster Project Team

Journal: ESA Bulletin
Volume: 102
Page: 46-53
Year: 2000

Copyright: ESA

Four years ago, the first Cluster mission was lost when the maiden flight of Ariane-5 came to a tragic end. Today, through the combined efforts of the ESA Project Team, its industrial partners and collaborating scientific institutions, the Cluster quartet has been born again. A two-year programme of investigation into the Sun-Earth connection will begin this summer when ESA's Cornerstone mission to the magnetosphere lifts off from Baikonur. Flying in formation over the Earth's polar regions, Cluster-II will carry out the first three-dimensional exploration of near-Earth space ever attempted.