Launch and mission managers for NASA’s Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) participate in a prelaunch mission briefing on Oct. 8, 2019, in the News Center auditorium at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. From left to right are Karen Fox, NASA Communications; Omar Baez, launch director in NASA’s Launch Services Program; and Phil Joyce, vice president of space launch programs for Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems. ICON is targeted to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Oct. 9, 2019, aboard a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket carried aloft by the company’s Stargazer L-1011 aircraft. The explorer will study the frontier of space - the dynamic zone high in Earth's atmosphere where terrestrial weather from below meets space weather above.