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- IMP-8 (Interplanetary Monitoring Platform-8) was launched by NASA on October 26, 1973 to measure the magnetic fields, plasmas, and energetic charged particles (e.g., cosmic rays) of the Earth's magnetotail and magnetosheath and of the near-Earth solar wind. IMP-8, the last of ten IMP (Interplanetary Monitoring Platform) or AIMP (Anchored-IMP) spacecraft launched in 10 years, continues to operate to this day in its near-circular, 35 Earth Radii, 12-day orbit. It is an important adjunct to the International Solar Terrestrial Physics program, provides in-ecliptic, one Astronomical Unit baseline data for the deep space Voyager and Ulysses missions, and continues to accumulate a long-timeseries database useful in understanding long-term solar processes. http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/space/imp-8.html
[Source: NASA.]
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