An unmanned Atlas . rocket blasted off from Florida on Thursday with a quartet of . NASA science satellites designed to map explosions triggered by . criss-crossing magnetic fields around the Earth . The 20-story-tall rocket , built and launched by United . Launch Alliance , a partnership of Lockheed Martin and . Boeing , lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station . at 10:44 p.m. EDT ( 0244 GMT on Friday ) . Perched atop the rocket were four identical satellites . designed to fly in a pyramid formation high around Earth . Scroll down for video ... 3-2-1 ! NASA has launched four identical spacecraft on a billion-dollar mission to study the explosive give-and-take of the Earth and sun 's magnetic fields . We have liftoff ! An unmanned Atlas rocket blasted off Thursday night from Cape Canaveral , Florida , carrying NASA 's Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft . Up , up and away ! The observatories will be placed into an oblong orbit stretching tens of thousands of miles into the magnetosphere . Each satellite is equipped with 25 sensors to record in . split-second detail what happens when the planet 's magnetic . field lines break apart and reconnect . Data from the four probes . will be combined to produce three-dimensional maps of the . process . Magnetic reconnection , as the phenomenon is known , is . commonplace throughout the universe , but poorly understood . Magnetic fields are generated by planets , stars , galaxies , . black holes and other celestial objects . When field lines snap . apart and reconnect , charged particles are sent soaring into . space at nearly the speed of light , roughly 186,000 miles per . second . On the sun , magnetic reconnection unleashes solar flares , . each as powerful as 1 million atomic bombs . Such solar activity . can trigger magnetic storms and aurora displays on Earth . Mission space : They will fly in pyramid formation to provide 3-D views of magnetic reconnection on the smallest of scales . New frontiers : Magnetic reconnection is what happens when magnetic fields come together , break apart , then come together again , releasing vast energy . NASA is spending about $ 1.1 billion on the project , known as . Magnetospheric Multiscale , or MMS , in an effort to understand . how the energy is generated and released . The satellites will . fly directly into reconnection zones 44,000 to 95,000 miles above Earth and map what happens when . magnetic field lines realign . `` The MMS mission will conduct a definitive experiment in . space that will finally allow us to understand how magnetic . reconnection works , '' lead researcher Jim Burch , from the . Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio , Texas , told . reporters at a pre-launch press conference . The research may have some practical spinoffs as well . Efforts to harness nuclear fusion in laboratories have been . stymied by magnetic reconnection , which causes temperatures to . drop in the fusion chambers . It also may help forecasters predict dangerous solar storms , . which can knock out power grids on Earth and disrupt radio , GPS . and satellite signals . The mission is designed to last two years . Science : The process of magnetic reconnection drives the aurora , as well as potentially disruptive solar storms .
NASA has launched four satellites in a $ 1.1 billion mission to study the high-speed interactions between Earth 's magnetic field and the sun . The spacecraft are called MERLIN, which stands for Magnetic Reorientation Experiment ( or RXE ). The hard-to-study mechanism underlying space weather is known as magnetic reconnection . Atlas 5 rocket was carrying four satellites . When in space , all four will be arranged in a pyramid formation , flying within about 6 miles of one anoter .