Wind (spacecraft)

The Global Geospace Science (GGS) Wind satellite is a NASA science spacecraft. It studies radio waves and plasma that occur in the solar wind and in the Earth's magnetosphere. It is still in service (as of 2025).

It was launched on 1 November 1994, at 09:31:00 UTC, from launch pad LC-17B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in Merritt Island, Florida, aboard a McDonnell Douglas Delta II 7925-10 rocket. Wind was designed and manufactured by Martin Marietta Astro Space Division in East Windsor Township, New Jersey. The satellite is a spin-stabilized cylindrical satellite with a diameter of 2.4 m (7 ft 10 in) and a height of 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in).

The spacecraft's original mission was to orbit the Sun at the L1 Lagrangian point, but this was delayed to study the magnetosphere and near lunar environment when the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) spacecraft were sent to the same location. Wind has been at L1 continuously since May 2004, and is still operating as of 2024. As of 2024, Wind currently has enough fuel to last over 50 more years at L1, until at least 2070. Wind continues to collect data, and by the end of 2023 had contributed data to over 7,290 scientific publications.

Mission operations are conducted from the Multi-Mission Operations Center (MMOC) in Building 14 at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Wind data can be accessed using the SPEDAS software. Wind is the sister ship to GGS Polar.

Category:Satellites