NASA to launch 3-D mission to Sun

NASA plans to launch two spacecraft to orbit the sun at two different vantage points. The two-year Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) will be the first of its kind.

The nearly identical twin spacecraft will act like a pair of human eyes, each picking up data that is correlated, with data from observatories on the ground and in low-Earth orbit, into a third-dimension vision of the Sun and its influences.

Scientists feel the mission will have an immediate impact on human lives as they hope to gain more insight into coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

Information gleaned on the origins and behaviors of CMEs would allow more accurate forecasting, which would improve planning for space missions as well as over-the-pole flights, satellite communications and video transmissions.

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It seems NASA has rebounded nicely from the Columbia disaster of 2003. I think this mission is pretty cool stuff.