Objectives and Applications
RAX (Radio Aurora eXplorer) was a collaborative nanosatellite mission of the University of Michigan and SRI International, with the objective to study plasma instabilities that lead to magnetic field-aligned irregularities (FIA) of electron density in the lower polar thermosphere. The mission was launched in November 2010 and stopped operations in spring of 2011 due to power system anomaly.
Full Name
Radio Aurora eXplorer
Mission Status
Mission complete
Mission Agencies
University of Michigan
Launch Date
20 Nov 2010
Mission Links
EOL Date
19 Jan 2011
Orbit Type
Inclined, non-sun-synchronous
Orbit Period
97.7 minutes
Orbit Sense
Orbit Inclination
72 deg
Orbit Altitude
650 km
Orbit Longitude
NORAD Catalog #
International Designator
No IDN OpenSearch datasets found.