NASA: Atlas V Unmanned Rocket Launches Successfully:

Late Thursday night, March 12, 2015, Atlas V and NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS) has successfully been launched into space. This unmanned spacecraft is part of the space administration's billion-dollar mission to study what is known as magnetic reconnection.

The 20-storey tall rocket launched from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida carrying four identical satellites, which will be flying in a pyramid formation high above earth. NASA's Atlas V was built and launched by United Launch Alliance, in partnership with Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Launch manager Omar Baez describes the launch as 'picture-perfect'.

Atlas V and NASA's MMS mission will spend two years exploring the boundary between the Earth and the sun's magnetic fields. It aims to study magnetic reconnection, a physical process occurring in highly conducting plasmas wherein the magnetic topology is rearranged, converting magnetic to kinetic energy, thermal energy, and particle acceleration.

Reconnection is at the forefront of many yet-unexplained events in the solar system. Solar flares for instance, occur when magnetic energy that has built up over time in the sun's atmosphere is released rapidly and violently. When this happens, a burst of powerful radiation travels through the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Here on earth, a solar flare powerful enough could disrupt major electronic and telecommunication channels.

To help move research on magnetic reconnection forward, the satellites aboard NASA's Atlas V are equipped with 25 sensors capable of recording split-second detail every time Earth's magnetic field breaks apart and reconnects. The data captured will then be used to form a 3D map of the entire process.

NASA hopes the results of this research will have massive benefits for society and modern life. For one, it may allow future scientists to predict heavy solar storms that could render GPS systems, air communications, and even power grids useless. Moreover, efforts to harness nuclear fusion in laboratories are often stymied by magnetic reconnection.

Thanks to NASA's Atlas V launch, humanity could be one step closer to understanding the many mysteries shrouding the vastness of space. In turn, this could lead to further advancements in space engineering, and even travel.