VANDENBERG AFB, Calif. – Technicians process NASA's IRIS spacecraft for launch aboard an Orbital Pegasus XL rocket. Working inside a clean room tent at Vandenberg, the technicians will conduct numerous tests and assembly operations on the spacecraft and rocket ahead of the launch. IRIS is short for Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph and the spacecraft's mission 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. Photo credit: VAFB_Randy Beaudoin
Photographer VAFB_Randy Beaudoin
Album Hot_Pics