NASA mission launched to unveil secrets of Northern Lights

The US space agency NASA has launched its first five-satellite mission on board a single rocket aiming to unlock the age-old mysteries of the aurora borealis.

The two-year mission, dubbed THEMIS -- an acronym for Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms -- was launched successfully late Saturday after a 24-hour delay, NASA said in a statement.

"The mission will help resolve the mystery of what triggers geomagnetic substorms," the space agency said on its website.