Space weather satellite ICON on course for summer 2017 launch

NASA’s ICON mission, depicted in this artist’s concept, will study the ionosphere from a height of about 350 miles to understand how the combined effects of terrestrial weather and space weather influence this ionized layer of particles. (NASA image)
NASA’s ICON mission, depicted in this artist’s concept, will study the ionosphere from a height of about 350 miles to understand how the combined effects of terrestrial weather and space weather influence this ionized layer of particles. (NASA image)

NASA’s newest space weather research satellite, the Ionospheric Connection Explorer, is on course for a summer 2017 launch after UC Berkeley scientists and their colleagues shipped its four instruments to Utah for testing, prior to being packed into the final satellite.
The ICON mission, led by UC Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory with the help of scientists and engineers from around the world, will add one more satellite to NASA’s fleet of 26 heliophysics satellites. Its mission: to understand the tug-of-war between Earth’s atmosphere and the space environment.
The complete article courtesy Robert Sanders, Media relations Berkeley News