On this day in space: Feb. 17, 2007: NASA launches 5 spacecraft to hunt auroras

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On Feb. 17, 2007, a Delta 2 rocket launched NASA's THEMIS mission of not one, but 5 satellites.

On Feb. 17, 2007, NASA launched a quintet of satellites to figure out the science behind Earth's most colorful auroras.

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NASA's five THEMIS satellites launch spaceward atop a Delta 2 rocket in a Feb. 17, 2007 liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
A Delta 2 rocket launches NASA's THEMIS mission to study the auroras in 2007. The rocket has since been retired. (Image credit: NASA TV.)

Substorms happen when Earth's magnetosphere is disrupted by solar wind, or energetic particles flowing from the sun. This causes auroras to brighten and undulate in the sky.

THEMIS helped scientists understand what triggers these substorms. All five THEMIS satellites launched on the same Delta II rocket before splitting up to orbit Earth in formation.

On This Day in Space: See our full 365-day video archive!

Hanneke Weitering
Hanneke Weitering
Contributing expert

Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos. 

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