Latest Explorer program Stories
redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online NASA has awarded a two-year, $50 million contract to Orbital Sciences Corporation to build a new heliophysics science satellite that will investigate the connection between space weather storms in the ionosphere and Earth’s terrestrial weather. The mission is currently set to launch in 2017, and will study the interface between the upper reaches of the Earth’s atmosphere and outer space in response to a recent scientific...
News media planning to cover the launch of NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) mission on June 26 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California should apply for accreditation by June 18. Deployment of IRIS from the Orbital Sciences L-1011 carrier aircraft aboard a Pegasus rocket is targeted for 10:27 p.m. EDT at an altitude of 39,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean. That location is approximately 100 miles northwest of Vandenberg off the central coast of California. News media...
WASHINGTON, April 23, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- News media planning to cover the launch of NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) mission on June 26 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California should apply for accreditation by June 18. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Deployment of IRIS from the Orbital Sciences L-1011 carrier aircraft aboard a Pegasus rocket is targeted for 10:27 p.m. EDT at an altitude of 39,000 feet over the Pacific...
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online NASA’s next satellite to go into space has just arrived (April 16) at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) spacecraft, which will launch no earlier than May 28, will be part of the agency's Small Explorer (SMEX) Mission, developed to deliver space exploration missions under $120 million. IRIS was designed and built at Lockheed Martin’s Space Systems Company Advanced...
GREENBELT, Md., April 17, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) satellite arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Tuesday, April 16, to begin its final preparations for launch currently scheduled no earlier than May 28. IRIS will improve our understanding of how heat and energy move through the deepest levels of the sun's atmosphere, thereby increasing our ability to forecast space weather. (Logo:...
University of California, Berkeley NASA has awarded the University of California, Berkeley, up to $200 million to build a satellite to determine how Earth’s weather affects weather at the edge of space, in hopes of improving forecasts of extreme “space weather” that can disrupt global positioning satellites (GPS) and radio communications. The satellite mission, called the Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON), will be designed, built and operated by scientists at UC Berkeley’s...
PALO ALTO, Calif., April 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Scientists will soon gain a better view into energy and plasma movement near the surface of the sun, thanks to delivery of the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) spacecraft to Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. in preparation for launch. Part of NASA's Small Explorer (SMEX) Mission, which delivers space exploration missions costing less than $120 million, IRIS was designed and built at Lockheed Martin's [NYSE: LMT] Space...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A critical design test for an infrared sensor that could improve NASA's future ability to detect and track asteroids and comets has been passed. The Near Earth Object Camera's (NEOCam) performance in an environment that mimicked the temperatures and pressures of deep space were assessed by the test. NEOCam will be the key instrument for a proposed new asteroid-hunting space-based telescope for which design and capability details have...
PASADENA, Calif., April 15, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- An infrared sensor that could improve NASA's future detecting and tracking of asteroids and comets has passed a critical design test. (Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The test assessed performance of the Near Earth Object Camera (NEOCam) in an environment that mimicked the temperatures and pressures of deep space. NEOCam is the cornerstone instrument for a proposed new space-based...
WASHINGTON, April 12, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA has selected a new satellite mission and a new space-based instrument to begin development as part of the agency's Heliophysics Explorer Program. The projects will provide space observations to study Earth's ionosphere and thermosphere. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The Ionospheric Connection (ICON) mission, led by Thomas Immel of the University of California, Berkeley, will probe the extreme...
