Extends Mission To 2010

"You're doing such a good job... can you stick around a while longer?" No, that's not your boss asking you to work over Memorial Day -- it's NASA, which on Thursday granted a four-year mission extension to a satellite studying Earth's middle and upper atmosphere.

The extension will give the Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics satellite, or Timed for short, further... well, time... to analyze how the sun influences the region of the atmosphere that extends from 40 miles to 110 miles above the Earth. That area is too high for research airplanes and balloons to operate in -- and too low for most satellites to explore.

NASA says Timed's studies could help scientists better understand how changes in those atmospheric regions affect satellite tracking and communications on the ground.

"Timed's extended mission will bring insights into atmospheric evolution and perhaps the fate of the Earth's atmosphere," said Sam Yee to the Associated Press. Yee is a project scientist from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, which built the spacecraft.

"During the next phase of our mission, we’ll embark on new investigations to better understand the mechanisms leading to the escape of our upper atmosphere," Yee said. "Investigating the processes behind the loss of oxygen and hydrogen will help us understand the evolution of other planetary atmospheres including Venus and Mars."

This is actually the second time that Timed's mission has been extended since its launch from Vandenburg Air Force Base in 2001. The mission was first extended in October 2003... and as long as the satellite continues to perform its unique mission, it appears Timed will be working overtime for some time to come.

FMI: www.timed.jhuapl.edu/WWW/index.php