The three stages of the Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus XL rocket have been mated in preparation for the launch the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph or IRIS spacecraft.

At Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the three stages of the Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus XL rocket have been mated in preparation for the launch the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, spacecraft.

Scheduled for launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base no earlier than April 29, 2013, IRIS will open a new window of discovery by tracing the flow of energy and plasma through the chromospheres and transition region into the sun’s corona using spectrometry and imaging. IRIS fills a crucial gap in our ability to advance studies of the sun-to-Earth connection by tracing the flow of energy and plasma through the foundation of the corona and the region around the sun known as the heliosphere. For more information, visit http://iris.gsfc.nasa.gov Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin