KSC-2013-2459

VANDENBERG AFB, Calif. – Members of the IRIS and Pegasus launch teams working in a hangar at Vandenberg work connect the separation ring for NASA's IRIS spacecraft, short for Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph. The separation system will push IRIS away from an Orbital Pegasus XL rocket when the spacecraft reaches its proper orbit after launch. Scheduled for launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base no earlier than June 26, 2013, IRIS will open a new window of discovery by tracing the flow of energy and plasma through the chromospheres and transition region into the sun’s corona using spectrometry and imaging. IRIS fills a crucial gap in our ability to advance studies of the sun-to-Earth connection by tracing the flow of energy and plasma through the foundation of the corona and the region around the sun known as the heliosphere. Photo credit: NASA_Doug Gruben