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- The aim of the Cluster mission is to study small-scale structures of the magnetosphere and its environment in three dimensions. To achieve this, Cluster is constituted of four identical spacecraft that will flight in a tetrahedral configuration. The separation distances between the spacecraft will be varied between 600 km and 20 000 km, according to the key scientific regions. The first Cluster mission was launched on 4 June 1996, but the launch vehicle exploded 37 seconds into the flight. Cluster II was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 16 July 2000 and 9 August 2000. The four satellites were put into orbit, in pairs, by two Soyuz rockets provided by the Russian-French Starsem company. Starsem has four shareholders - Aerospatiale, Arianespace, the Russian Space Agency and TsSKB Samara, the manufacturer of the Soyuz vehicle. Each of the four spacecraft carries an identical set of 11 instruments to investigate charged particles, electrical and magnetic fields. These were built by European and American instrument teams led by Principal Investigators. FGM-Fluxgate Magnetometer EDI -Electron Drift Instrument ASPOC-Active Spacecraft Potential Control experiment STAFF -Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Field Fluctuation experiment EFW-Electric Field and Wave experiment DWP-Digital Wave Processing experiment WHISPER-Waves of High frequency and Sounder for Probing of Electron density by Relaxation experiment WBD-Wide Band Data instrument PEACE-Plasma Electron And Current Experiment CIS-Cluster Ion Spectrometry experiment RAPID-Research with Adaptive Particle Imaging Detectors See: http://clusterlaunch.esa.int/science-e/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=8 Group: Platform_Details Entry_ID: CLUSTER-II Group: Platform_Identification Platform_Category: Solar/Space Observation Satellites Short_Name: CLUSTER-II Long_Name: CLUSTER-II End_Group Group: Synonymous_Platform_Names Short_Name: Cluster-2 Short_Name: FM6 Short_Name: FM5 Short_Name: FM7 Short_Name: FM8 Short_Name: Salsa Short_Name: 26411 Short_Name: 26463 Short_Name: 26410 Short_Name: 26464 Short_Name: Samba Short_Name: Rumba Short_Name: Tango Short_Name: 2000-045B Short_Name: 2000-041A Short_Name: 2000-041B Short_Name: 2000-045A End_Group Group: Platform_Associated_Instruments Short_Name: EFW Short_Name: FGM Short_Name: EDI Short_Name: ASPOC Short_Name: STAFF Short_Name: DWP Short_Name: WHISPER Short_Name: WBD Short_Name: PEACE Short_Name: CIS Short_Name: RAPID End_Group Group: Orbit Orbit_Inclination: 90.7 degrees Period: 620 m Perigee: 19,000 km Apogee: 119,000 km Orbit_Type: HEO > Highly Elliptical Orbit End_Group Online_Resource: http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=8 Sample_Image: http://sci.esa.int/science-e-media/img/2e/hires_36654.JPG Group: Platform_Logistics Launch_Date: 2000-07-16 Launch_Site: Baikonur Cosmodrome, Tyuratam, Russia Design_Life: 9 years Primary_Sponsor: ESA Primary_Sponsor: NASA End_Group End_Group
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