The second and third stages of the Orbital ATK Pegasus XL rocket for the ICON mission are offloaded at Vandenberg.
The second and third stages of the Orbital ATK Pegasus XL rocket are offloaded from a transport vehicle at Building 1555 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in May 2017. The rocket is being prepared for the upcoming launch of NASA’s Ionospheric Connection Explorer mission, from the Kwajalein Atoll. 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.
Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin
May 5, 2017