KSC-2013-1994

VANDENBERG AFB, Calif. – Technicians offload ground support equipment slated for NASA's IRIS mission. NASA’s Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, satellite will improve our understanding of how heat and energy move through the deepest levels of the sun’s atmosphere, thereby increasing our ability to forecast space weather. On launch day, deployment of the Pegasus from Orbital’s L-1011 carrier aircraft will occur at a location over the Pacific Ocean about 100 miles northwest of Vandenberg off the central coast of California south of Big Sur. Photo credit: VAFB_Randy Beaudoin