The objective of the RAX mission is to understand the microphysics that lead to the formation of magnetic field-aligned plasma irregularities (FAI), an anomaly known to disrupt communications with orbiting spacecraft. The RAX mission is specifically designed to remotely measure, with extremely high angular resolution, the 3-D k-spectrum (spatial Fourier transform) of ~1 m scale FAI as a function of altitude, in particular measuring the magnetic field alignment of the irregularities. The RAX mission will use a network of existing ground radars that will scatter signals off the FAI to be measured by a receiver on the RAX spacecraft. The spacecraft will measure "radio aurora", or the Bragg scattering from FAI that are illuminated with a narrow beam incoherent scatter radar (ISR) on the ground. This remote sensing method is based on the powerful mathematical relation that the radio aurora intensity is proportional to the irregularity k-spectrum evaluated at the Bragg wave number. The ground-to-space bistatic radar experiment highly resolves the k-spectrum, which means that the sensed volume of plasma is homogeneous and that the received signal contains a pure content of wave vectors, which are important for accurate analysis of wave growth and damping. Moreover, each experiment will be tagged with the convection electric field Ec, a principal driver of the irregularities, which will be measured (besides altitude profiles of plasma density and temperatures) by the ISR during an experiment. The RAX mission is a unique opportunity to quantify plasma processes in a homogeneously resolved volume of plasma with the driving force and the effect measured effectively simultaneously. RAX-2 successfully made the first-ever measurement of naturally occurring auroral turbulence recorded using a nanosatellite radar receiver. The distinctive radar echoes recorded on March 8 were taken with the Radio Aurora Explorer (RAX) CubeSat. The RAX nanosatellite measured turbulence over Fairbanks, Alaska that was a direct result of a geomagnetic storm triggered by the largest solar flare in the past five years. The Earth's high latitude ionosphere, a region of the upper atmosphere associated with solar-driven aurora or "northern lights," becomes highly unstable when large currents flow during geomagnetic storms. RAX was specifically designed by SRI and the University of Michigan to measure this auroral turbulence from an orbital vantage point inaccessible to traditional ground-based radars. ""The RAX radar echo discovery has convincingly proved that miniature satellites, beyond their role as teaching tools, can provide high caliber measurements for fundamental space weather research,"" said Therese Moretto Jorgensen, Ph.D., Geospace program director in the Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences at the National Science Foundation.