KSC-07-S-00024
KSC · 2007-04-25
The L-1011 carrier aircraft takes off and heads for the drop point to launch the Pegasus rocket carrying AIM. The AIM spacecraft will fly three instruments designed to study polar mesospheric clouds located at the edge of space, 50 miles above the Earth's surface in the coldest part of the planet's atmosphere. The mission's primary goal is to explain why these clouds form and what has caused them to become brighter and more numerous and appear at lower latitudes in recent years.