# NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft happened to be sitting in the path of the July 2012 Carrington-class storm and took the full hit instead of Earth — the only reason we have detailed measurements of a blow we never felt

> On July 23, 2012, NASA’s STEREO-A spacecraft was drifting ahead of Earth in its solar orbit when a coronal mass ejection tore off the Sun and slammed directly into its instruments — a blast that would later be measured…

- **Source:** [Spacedaily](https://spacedaily.com/j-v-nasas-stereo-a-spacecraft-happened-to-be-sitting-in-the-path-of-the-july-2012-carrington-class-storm-and-took-the-full-hit-instead-of-earth-the-only-reason-we-have-detailed-measurements-of-a-blow/?utm_source=gearopen.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=feed&utm_content=6a385bc4e8976fcb37ce01fa)
- **Published:** 2026-06-21
- **Category:** Science
- **Tags:** #surface
- **Canonical:** http://localhost:4321/a/6a385bc4e8976fcb37ce01fa

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_GearOpen's distilled summary. The full original article is published at Spacedaily (source link above); GearOpen does not republish the source's full text._