Spacecraft Missions (cont.) The IMAGE spacecraft was launched from Vandenberg AFB on March 25, 2000. IMAGE is the first satellite mission dedicated to imaging the Earth's magnetosphere, the region of space controlled by Earth's magnetic field. Invisible to standard astronomical observing techniques, these populations of ions and electrons have traditionally been studied by means of localized measurements with charged particle detectors, magnetometers, and electric field instruments. IMAGE employs a variety of imaging techniques to "see the invisible" and to produce the first comprehensive global images of the plasma populations in the inner magnetosphere.