On March 13, 2015 at 02:44 UTC the " Atlas V” rocket-carrier was launched from the Cape Canaveral US Air Force Station in Florida. The launch was performed by United Launch Alliance supported by the 45th Space Wing of US Air Force. The rocket orbited 4 MMS (Magnetospheric Multiscale) satellites.

The satellites will stay together in cosmic terms, formation-flying around the Earth in a carefully choreographed dance to gain three-dimensional insights into the fundamental processes responsible for transferring energy from the solar wind to Earth’s magnetosphere. This experiment promises to teach scientists about how and why magnetic reconnection occurs, which is the explosive disconnection and reconfiguring of the magnetic field lines.