by Dan Slayback, NASA Research Scientist aboard the SSV Robert C. Seamans / KINGDOM OF TONGA / What a week! Having just finished an expedition to Earth's newest landmass, Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai (HTHH) in the Kingdom of Tonga a few days ago, I thought I'd write a few thoughts on this latest expedition to Earth's …
By Katie Orndahl /YUKON AND NORTHWEST TERRITORIES, CANADA/ I spent my summer searching for arctic spirits: barren-ground caribou who are, somehow, both omnipresent and elusive. My journey, it turns out, would trace the migration route of the Porcupine caribou herd, linking boreal forest and arctic tundra ecosystems unlike any other northern mammal. The wild landscape …
By Emily B. Hite /NUKU'ALOFA, TONGA/ Under the moonlight of Friday, October 11, 2019, I eagerly trekked across Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai (HTHH) with a team from Sea Education Association (SEA) and NASA to complete one final mission: to measure temperatures around the perimeter of the volcano's crater lake. To our delight, our thermal imaging …
By Natalia Chiapperi & Carlin Schildge /HUNGA TONGA-HUNGA HA'APAI, KINGDOM OF TONGA/ As we begin to wrap up our time here at HTHH, the data collection slowed down and we found some free time to enjoy the beauty and seclusion of the island. The day started late, with an 8:40 wake-up call, the latest we've …
By Cameron Gallant and Katherine H. Webber /HUNGA TONGA-HUNGA HA'APAI, KINGDOM OF TONGA/ KATHERINE: Walking on deck, I welcomed our first sunny day at HTHH; however, upon reaching the island, I was greeted by hot black sand and an all-consuming heat that would last all day. Soon, as a part of the bird/vegetation team, Emily, …
A Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket launched NASA's Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON, satellite at 9:59 p.m. EDT on Oct. 10 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) to study the dynamic zone in our atmosphere where terrestrial weather from below meets space weather from above. The satellite was attached to the Pegasus XL rocket, …
The Pegasus XL rocket has gone through each of its three stage motors, reaching a top speed of nearly 17,000 mph. ICON has now separated from the rocket to begin its mission, orbiting 360 miles above the Earth. Learn more about NASA's ICON mission at: https://www.nasa.gov/icon
Following first stage separation, the second stage motor ignited 1 minute and 34 seconds after launch, burning for 1 minute, 14 seconds before shutting down and separating. At 7 minutes, 18 seconds after launch, the third stage engine ignited and will burn for 1 minute and 9 seconds.
We have ignition! Northrop Grumman's Pegasus XL rocket is delivering ICON, NASA's Ionospheric Connection Explorer satellite, on its journey to the boundary between Earth and space where terrestrial weather from below meets space weather from above. After reaching 39,000 feet, the rocket was dropped from the underside of the Northrop Grumman L-1011 Stargazer aircraft about …
Northrop Grumman's L-1011 aircraft, Stargazer, is making its way back to the drop box – a 40-mile long area that the company's Pegasus XL rocket can be dropped in. Secured in the rocket's payload fairing in NASA's Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) – a satellite developed to study the Earth's ionosphere, where terrestrial weather from below meets …
