Tag: Heliophysics
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Long-delayed NASA science satellite gets October launch date
Technicians extend the solar array on NASA’s Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON, satellite during a deployment test Aug. 10 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin The launch of a NASA ionospheric research satellite off Florida’s east coast is targeted for Oct. 9 after persistent technical problems with its air-dropped Pegasus rocket stymied…
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NASA selects missions to observe the sun and its impact on Earth
An eruption from the sun on April 16, 2012, was captured here by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. Credit: NASA NASA has selected two satellite missions for launch on the same rocket in 2022 to investigate the origins of the solar wind and explore the interaction between magnetic fields around Earth with those from the sun.…
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No new date set for Pegasus launch with NASA’s ICON satellite
The Pegasus XL rocket, slung underneath an L-1011 carrier jet, before departure from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Wednesday morning for a launch attempt that was later aborted. Credit: NASA/Frank Michaux NASA and Northrop Grumman officials have not set a new target date for the launch of the ICON ionospheric research satellite aboard an…
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Timeline for Pegasus launch of ICON satellite
Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus XL rocket will take about 11 minutes to place NASA’s Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON, satellite into a roughly 357-mile-high (575-kilometer) orbit after an airborne launch off Florida’s east coast. The nearly 53,000-pound (24-metric ton) rocket will drop from the belly of a modified L-1011 carrier plane, named Stargazer, flying on an…
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NASA managers clear Pegasus rocket for launch with ICON satellite
Northrop Grumman’s L-1011 carrier jet, named Stargazer, arrived at Cape Canaveral’s Skid Strip on Oct. 19. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett NASA and Northrop Grumman managers at the Kennedy Space Center decided Tuesday to press ahead with final preparations to launch a NASA scientific research satellite early Wednesday aboard an air-launched Pegasus XL rocket off Florida’s east…
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Live coverage: Pegasus launch scrubbed, carrier jet returns to Cape Canaveral
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket with NASA’s Ionospheric Connection Explorer satellite. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter. NASA TV’s live video coverage of the Pegasus XL launch with the ICON satellite begins at 2:45 a.m. EST (0745 GMT). Become a member today and support…
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Parker Solar Probe sets records during first encounter with the sun
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated Nov. 8 with confirmation of Parker Solar Probe’s health after perihelion. Artist’s concept of NASA’s Parker Solar Probe. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/Steve Gribben Less than three months after its fiery departure from Cape Canaveral, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe flew within 15 million miles (24 million kilometers) of the sun Monday for the $1.5 billion mission’s…
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Pegasus launch set for no earlier than Wednesday, but data review continues
Technicians work on the Pegasus XL rocket last month at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, before its ferry flight to Florida. Credit: USAF 30th Space Wing/Tony Vaulcin The launch of a NASA research satellite built to probe conditions along the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and space has been tentatively rescheduled for no earlier than Wednesday…
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Pegasus rocket launch postponed
The ICON spacecraft was re-encapsulated inside the Pegasus XL rocket’s nose cone at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, after an aborted launch campaign in June. Credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin Continuing a series of delays keeping NASA’s Ionospheric Connection Explorer on Earth, NASA announced Tuesday that the satellite’s launch aboard an air-dropped Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket…
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First milestones accomplished on NASA’s newly-launched Parker Solar Probe
Artist’s concept of NASA’s Parker Solar Probe departing Earth. Credit: NASA Space missions dispatched into the solar system often have journeys lasting years before reaching a scientific payoff, but NASA’s Parker Solar Probe launched last weekend on a speedy departure from planet Earth is already getting ready to sweep closer to the sun than any…