A stereographic view of NASA's Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) in a clean room at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, on Aug. 16, 2018. ICON will launch on a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL vehicle, attached beneath the company's L-1011 Stargazer aircraft, from the Skid Strip at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Launch is scheduled for Oct. 26. ICON will study the frontier of space - the dynamic zone high in Earth's atmosphere where terrestrial weather from below meets space weather above. The explorer will help determine the physics of Earth's space environment and pave the way for mitigating its effects on our technology, communications systems and society.
ICONIonospheric Connection ExplorerNASALSPLaunch Services ProgramKSCKennedy Space CenterGSFCGoddard Space Flight CenterNorthrop GrummanPegasus XLLEOStar-2UC BerkeleyVAFBVandenberg Air Force BaseMIHGTIMichelson Interferometer for Global High resolution imaging of tNRLU S Naval Research LaboratoryEUVExtreme Ultraviolet spectrometerICPInstrument Control PackageIVMIon Velocity MeterUT DallasUniversity of Texas at Dallas