[ad_1]
Artistic representation of the ICON space shuttle at work, studying the border between Earth and space.
Credit: NASA Conceptual image of Goddard Lab / B. Monroe
The launch of NASA's much delayed mission to study the interaction of terrestrial and space weather conditions has again been postponed, the agency announced today (23 October).
The mission, a satellite in orbit around the Earth called Ionospheric Connection Explorer, was originally scheduled to be launched in December 2017 and has been delayed several times due to problems with its rocket. More recently, it was to be launched early in the morning of October 26 from a carrier aircraft that would take off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida.
NASA did not give any detailed reason for the new delay beyond what the team wanted to continue testing the rocket.
"NASA and Northrop Grumman have postponed the launch of the agency's Ionospheric Explorer Explorer, or ICON, to conduct further rocket pre-launch testing," said a senior official. NASA in a statement. "Once the tests are completed, a new launch date will be established."
The agency has not yet postponed the launch and gave no idea of the length of the delay, although his statement makes it clear that the spacecraft itself "remains healthy".
The ICON rocket, a Pegasus XL accelerator built by Northrop Grumman Innovations System (formerly Orbital ATK), is unusual. Rather than take off from the ground, the rocket and the spacecraft are carried aboard an aircraft and dropped in full flight, at which point the rocket fires. In June, this complete set took off for the Marshall Islands, which was then the launch site for the mission, to turn around due to a rocket related problem.
The ICON mission is designed to study the ionosphere, a layer of the Earth's atmosphere where terrestrial and space weather interact. It's a tumultuous part of space, but it's also an area of crucial importance for GPS satellites and other space infrastructures, hence NASA's decision to build the spaceship on the ground.
Email Meghan Bartels at [email protected] or follow her. @meghanbartels. follow us @Spacedotcom and Facebook. Original article on Space.com.
[ad_2]
Source link
