IMAGE

Explorer 78, Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration, MIDEX-1

Mission Profile

IMAGE (Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration, Explorer 78, MIDEX-1) was a NASA spacecraft launched on 25 March 2000 aboard a Delta II to conduct the first comprehensive imaging of Earth's inner magnetosphere, treating it as a global system rather than a collection of point measurements. Using neutral atom imaging, radio sounding, and UV imagers, IMAGE produced global maps of the plasmasphere, ring current, and auroral ovals, observing how these regions respond to solar wind disturbances as complete systems. The mission was deactivated in December 2005 when its transmitter failed, but was unexpectedly detected again in January 2018 by an amateur radio astronomer, finding it had revived after a prolonged eclipse. NASA briefly communicated with IMAGE before losing contact again, raising the intriguing possibility of spacecraft systems recovering after years of dormancy.