TWO of Europe’s Cluster II spacecraft got safely off the ground last weekend,
to the relief of hundreds of scientists. The success follows the catastrophic
destruction of the original four research satellites in 1996, when the Ariane 5
rocket exploded on its maiden flight.
“When I saw the lift-off, all of the memories of the 1996 launch came
flooding back,” says Steve Schwartz of Queen Mary and Westfield College in
London, who is the project scientist in Britain for Cluster data handling. “So
it was a little anxious—but it was a relief that it all went
perfectly.”
The two…
