Just over a month after NASA achieved the closest flying separation ever of any multispacecraft formation, NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) now holds the Guinness World Record for the highest altitude fix of a GPS signal as the team of four satellites set the new record of 43,500 miles above the surface of the Earth.

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"The four MMS spacecraft incorporate GPS measurements into their precise tracking systems, which require extremely sensitive position and orbit calculations to guide tight flying formations," NASA said, adding that precise GPS tracking allows the satellites to maintain a tight formation needed for high-resolution three-dimensional observations.

Magnetic Reconnection

NASA's MMS mission began on March 12, 2015, with the primary goal of studying the mystery of how magnetic fields around Earth connect and disconnect, explosively releasing energy via a process known a magnetic reconnection. MMS consists of four identical spacecraft that work together to provide the first three-dimensional view of this fundamental process, which occurs throughout the universe.

Magnetic reconnection is a phenomenon unique to plasma (i.e. the mix of positively and negatively charged particles that make up the stars, fill space and account for an estimated 99 percent of the observable universe).

Scientists believe MMS helps us understand reconnection elsewhere as well, such as in the atmosphere of the sun and other stars, in the vicinity of black holes and neutron stars, and at the boundary between our solar system's heliosphere and interstellar space.

Next Phase

Next spring, MMS will enter Phase 2 of the mission, and the satellites are anticipated to break their current high altitude GPS record by a factor of two or more.

During Phase 2 of the mission, the satellites will be sent into an even higher orbit where they will explore a different part of Earth's magnetosphere. 

TagsNASA, MMS, magnetic reconnection, Space, World Records, Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS), space exploration