VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) — A small NASA satellite that will study the sun has arrived at its Central Coast launch site.
The Lompoc Record (http://bit.ly/17ZAHlJ) reports that the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph spacecraft — called IRIS for short — reached Vandenberg Air Force Base last week after a journey from its manufacturing site at a Lockheed Martin facility in Palo Alto.
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IRIS is scheduled for launch into polar orbit on June 26 aboard a winged Pegasus rocket that will be dropped from a modified L-1011 jetliner over the Pacific, 100 miles northwest of Vandenberg.
The satellite’s single instrument is designed to gather data to increase understanding of how heat and energy move through the sun’s atmosphere.
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Information from: Lompoc Record, http://www.lompocrecord.com
