The mission is scheduled to launch before the end of the month

Nov 8, 2013 14:08 GMT  ·  By

Officials at the European Space Agency (ESA) announce the successful integration of all three satellites in the Swarm constellation onto their launch adapter. This component will see them safely separated and spread through their respective orbits after the vehicles are delivered into space. 

Swarm is comprised of three satellites that have to be carefully mounted and spaced apart on their adapter, so that they are not damaged by the harsh conditions of a space launch. The adapter is then inserted into the rocket, with only centimeters to spare between spacecraft and their enclosure.

All vehicles were delivered to the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia in mid-September, and were originally scheduled to launch into space on November 14. A series of delays plagued the Rokot rocket that was supposed to take them into low-Earth orbit, so the launch was postponed to November 22.

Swarm will play an important role in measuring various properties of Earth's magnetic field. This will allow scientists to better quantify the local, small-scale phenomena that occur in various layers of the atmosphere.