Washington - NASA on Thursday successfully launched a mission
to explore an area hundreds of kilometres above the Earth where
Earth's weather meets space weather.
The Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) launched on a Pegasus XL
rocket carried on an aircraft that took off from Cape Canaveral in
Florida at 9:59 pm (0159 GMT Friday).
Originally targeting a 9:30 p.m. drop, NASA and Northrop Grumman
determined to bypass the first drop attempt due to communication
issues, NASA said in an ICON programme blog.
The aircraft flew to an altitude of 12,000 metres over the ocean and
dropped the Pegasus XL rocket, which then ignited and carried ICON
into orbit.
"This is a fun launch. In my operational function, this is about as
good as it gets," said Omar Baez, launch director in NASA's Launch
Services Program. "The anxiety level is higher, the adrenaline is
flowing, but what a cool way to fly."
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/NASAICON?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NASAICONsatellite successfully air-launched over the Atlantic Ocean on @northropgrumman’s #PegasusXL rocket! 🚀Now in orbit, our ICON mission will help scientists better understand the dynamic region where Earth meets space. Details: https://t.co/jS0fteTYAY pic.twitter.com/HgULtoq0U1
— NASA (@NASA)
The goal of the mission is to determine where Earth's atmosphere ends
and space's begin.
The ionosphere stretches from 80 kilometres to about 640 kilometres
above the Earth, overlapping the top of Earth's atmosphere and the
beginning of space.
Changes in the ionosphere can affect astronauts, satellites and
communications signals, and understanding them could help scientists
better protect technology and space explorers.
ICON will track changes in the ionosphere by surveying a natural
feature of Earth's atmosphere to constantly glow. ICON will
photograph this so-called airglow to measure the ionosphere's winds,
composition and temperature, NASA said.