NASA's IRIS sun-observing telescope launches toward space on an Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket just after its separation from an L-1011 carrier aircraft over the Pacific Ocean on June 27, 2013.
NASA's newest solar observatory launched into space late Thursday (June 27), beginning a two-year quest to probe some of the sun's biggest mysteries.
An Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus XL rocket and the new solar telescope — called the "the enterface region imaging spectrograph satellite."
or IRIS — left California's Vandenberg Air Force Base underneath a specially modified aircraft at 9:30 p.m. EDT Thursday (6:30 p.m. local time; 0130 GMT Friday).
Nearly one hour later, at 10:27 p.m. EDT (7:27 p.m. local time), the plane dropped its payload 39,000 feet (11,900 meters) above the Pacific Ocean, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Vandenberg. After a five-second freefall, the Pegasus rocket roared to life and carried the sun-watching IRIS into Earth orbit .
this article from:http://www.space.com
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