NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer mission, or IBEX, successfully launched from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean at 1:47 p.m. EDT, Sunday. IBEX will be the first spacecraft to image and map dynamic interactions taking place in the outer solar system. The spacecraft separated from the third stage of its Pegasus launch vehicle at 1:55 p.m. and immediately began powering up components necessary to control onboard systems.
MORE IBEX MISSION INFORMATION VIDEO: NASA ASSISTANT LAUNCH MANAGER OMAR BAEZ INTERVIEWED AFTER SPACECRAFT SEPARATION VIDEO: IBEX SPACECRAFT SEPARATION AND L-1011 LANDING AFTER LAUNCH VIDEO: PEGASUS LAUNCHES WITH IBEX VIDEO: L-1011 CARRIER AIRCRAFT TAKES OFF WITH PEGASUS VIDEO: PEGASUS PRELAUNCH PROCESSING VIDEO: IBEX SPACECRAFT PROCESSING VIDEO FOOTAGE VIDEO: IBEX LAUNCH ANIMATION ALL-ACCESS SUBSCRIBERS: WATCH A REPLAY OF THE ENTIRE IBEX LAUNCH WEBCAST "After a 45-day orbit-raising and spacecraft-checkout period, the spacecraft will start its exciting science mission," said IBEX mission manager Greg Frazier of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Just as an impressionist artist makes an image from countless tiny strokes of paint, IBEX will build an image of the outer boundary of the solar system from impacts on the spacecraft by high-speed particles called energetic neutral atoms. These particles are created in the boundary region when the 1-million mph solar wind blows out in all directions from the sun and plows into the gas of interstellar space. This region is important to study because it shields many of the dangerous cosmic rays that would flood the space around Earth. "No one has seen an image of the interaction at the edge of our solar system where the solar wind collides with interstellar space," said IBEX Principal Investigator David McComas of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. "We know we're going to be surprised. It's a little like getting the first weather satellite images. Prior to that, you had to infer the global weather patterns from a limited number of local weather stations. But with the weather satellite images, you could see the hurricanes forming and the fronts developing and moving across the country." As the Sun burns its nuclear fuel supply, it throws off super hot gases known as the solar wind. As the solar system moves through interstellar space, this wind forms a bubble around the Sun, planets and other bodied in the solar system. This bubble, called the heliosphere, protects everything in the solar system from galactic cosmic rays and the gases in the interstellar medium. "The interstellar boundary regions are critical because they shield us from the vast majority of dangerous galactic cosmic rays, which otherwise would penetrate into Earth's orbit and make human spaceflight much more dangerous," said David J. McComas, IBEX principal investigator and senior executive director of the Space Science and Engineering Division at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. The IBEX satellite will orbit the Earth every eight days on a highly-elliptical path that takes it to an apogee of 320,000 km (approximately 80% of the distance to the Moon) to make the first comprehensive map of the boundary between our Solar System and interstellar space. Measuring this interstellar interaction is important for understanding our protection from galactic cosmic rays – energetic particles from beyond the Solar System – that could pose health risks to future astronauts exploring deep space. "The solar system's frontier is billions of miles away, so it's difficult for us to go there, but interesting things happen at boundaries, and with IBEX, we will see them for the first time," said Dr. Robert MacDowall, IBEX Mission Scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Unlike many satellites in space that collect light, IBEX collects particles. These particles come from the boundary of the solar system and beyond — from the interstellar medium. IBEX has two sensors that collect particles as the satellite orbits the Earth. The satellite spins as it orbits so that over the course of six months, each sensor has the opportunity to collect particles from every part of the sky. As they collect the particles, the sensors and spacecraft keep track of the area the particles came from, the time they entered the sensor, the mass of the particles, and the amount of energy each particle has. This allows the science team to build a map of how many particles of each energy came from each direction in the sky. "IBEX will let us visualize our home in the galaxy for the first time and explore how it may have evolved over the history of the solar system. Ultimately, by making the first images of the interstellar boundaries neighboring our solar system, IBEX will provide a first step toward exploring the galactic frontier" says Dr. David J. McComas, IBEX principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in San Antonio, Texas. By analyzing the map, the team of scientists can determine what the interaction of the solar wind and interstellar medium is like in all of the areas of the protective bubble around the solar system. For example, scientists are trying to find out if there are some areas where the interstellar medium stops the solar wind from flowing outward more quickly (like slamming on the brakes) than other places (where a slow gradual stop may occur.) Also, scientists are trying to determine the overall shape of the bubble which may be affected by differences in density, and magnetic fields in the interstellar medium. IBEX was sent to orbit riding in the nose of the air-launched Pegasus while flying high over the Pacific Ocean. Following a one-hour preplanned positioning flight, the Pegasus rocket was released from Orbital's L-1011 carrier aircraft at approximately 1:47 p.m. (EDT). After an 8-minute and 15-second powered flight sequence by the Pegasus rocket, the IBEX satellite flight system, which weighed approximately 1,000 lbs. at launch and included the spacecraft and its associated propulsion system, was accurately deployed into its targeted initial orbit 125 miles above the Earth. Shortly after separation from Pegasus, the IBEX satellite's independent propulsion system burned for just over a minute to propel it into its initial elliptical orbit. "We are very pleased to support NASA and Southwest Research Institute on this important scientific project," said Mr. David W. Thompson, Orbital's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "The IBEX program was another 'dual' mission for our satellite and launch vehicle engineering teams, building on our history of carrying out missions for which Orbital was responsible for the satellite design, development, manufacturing and testing, as well as the launch services with our Pegasus and Taurus rockets. Once the IBEX satellite completes its in-orbit testing and begins to deliver data to the scientific team, it will join a growing list of other Orbital-supported dual missions for NASA, including the AIM, GALEX, SORCE and ACRIMSAT science satellites built by Orbital and launched aboard our rockets." Pegasus is initially lifted to an altitude of 40,000 feet under the carrier aircraft, where it is released horizontally before the first-stage Orion 50 motor is ignited. Approximately 110 seconds into the flight, a composite payload fairing is jettisoned following the Orion 50 second-stage ignition. The third-stage Orion 38 motor burns until approximately 8 minutes into the flight, where the Pegasus delivers its payload into orbit. TThis mission represents the first four-stage version of Pegasus by incorporating a STAR 27H solid rocket motor to raise the initial 200 km orbit to a highly elliptical 7000 km by 50 Earth radii orbit. The STAR 27H motor is produced at ATK's Elkton, MD facility. ATK's STAR motors have achieved many impressive feats in their four decades of use and more than 2400 successful flights. Not only have the STAR motors achieved the title of fastest human-made object, but they have been used on several of the world's launch vehicles as well as the first orbit insertion around the moon and the first soft landing on the moon. Over the next several weeks, the IBEX satellite's onboard hydrazine thrusters will fire to maneuver the spacecraft into its final highly elliptical final orbit of 200,000 by 4,400 miles. Upon completion of the orbit positioning process, the apogee of IBEX's orbit will extend 80% of the distance to the Moon from Earth.
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