SpaceX has been selected by NASA to launch a pair of smallsats in 2025 to study space weather as part of a rideshare mission. The Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS) will investigate space weather and the magnetosphere from low Earth orbit.
TRACERS was chosen by NASA in 2019 as a heliophysics Small Explorer (SMEX) mission with a budget of $115 million. Originally planned to launch alongside another SMEX mission, Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH), in August 2022, NASA later decided to include PUNCH in a Falcon 9 launch that also incorporates the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Re-ionization, and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) astrophysics mission in 2025.
The exact launch date and details of the TRACERS mission were not provided in the announcement, but NASA spokesperson Leejay Lockhart stated that TRACERS will be the primary payload of a rideshare mission heading to sun-synchronous orbit, with a tentative launch window of no earlier than April 2025.
The value of the task order awarded to SpaceX remains undisclosed, as NASA considers such information to be “competition-sensitive information” that could impact future task order bids. However, a government procurement database indicated that NASA added $3.593 million to SpaceX’s Venture Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) contract on September 26, although it is not explicitly linked to the TRACERS task order.
Once in sun-synchronous orbit, the TRACERS spacecraft will repeatedly cross the polar cusp of the Earth’s magnetosphere and study magnetic reconnection, which refers to the interactions between the solar wind and terrestrial magnetosphere as field lines bend towards the north and south poles.
The mission is being led by David Miles of the University of Iowa, who assumed the role of principal investigator after the passing of Craig Kletzing, also from the University of Iowa. Millennium Space Systems is responsible for building the TRACERS spacecraft.