Preparing Solar Satellite for Launch

Technicians work on the payload fairing that will protect NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) spacecraft during launch aboard an Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket. Launch is currently scheduled no earlier than May 28, 2013.

NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) with solar panels open in flight position, in the clean room at the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, where it was designed and built.

This image from JAXAs Hinode mission shows the lower regions of the suns atmosphere, the interface region, which a new mission called the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, will study in exquisite detail. Where previous missions have been able to image material at only a few predetermined temperatures in this region, IRIS will observe a wide range of temperatures from 5000 Kelvins to 65,000 Kelvins (and up to 10 million Kelvins during solar flares). Its images will resolve structures down to 150 miles across.

IRIS mission logo features a sun, a prism with a rainbow light spectrum coming from it, and on the bottom a list of mission partners: NASA, LMSAL, LMS&ES, ARC, SAO, UiO, MSU, LSJU.

Engineers attach the starboard side of the payload fairing into place for NASA's IRIS spacecraft. The fairing connects to the nose of the Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket that will lift the solar observatory into orbit in June. This image was released June 10, 2013.

Engineers inspect the solar panel connections on the NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) in the clean room at the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto where it was designed and built.

The Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket that will lift NASA's IRIS solar observatory into orbit is moved from a hangar onto a transporter at Vandenberg Air Force Base. This image was released June 10, 2013.

This image shows technicians and engineers at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California connecting the Pegasus XL rocket with the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, solar observatory to the Orbital Sciences L-1011 carrier aircraft. This image was released June 19, 2013.

Technicians and engineers at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California mate the Pegasus XL rocket with the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, solar observatory to the Orbital Sciences L-1011 carrier aircraft. This image was released June 19, 2013.

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Photos: NASA's IRIS Solar Observatory Mission in Pictures