NASA launched a satellite in order to study a lightly explored region of the Sun, the Associated Press reported.
The satellite launched late Thursday and its findings should help scientists improve the way they predict space weather that poses a threat to Earth's communications systems.
The Iris Satellite took a non-traditional path to Earth's orbit. Attached to a Pegasus rocket being carried by an airplane that took off Thursday evening from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base. At 39,000 feet in the air, the plane released the rocket, which began its climb into space.
NASA launch director Tim Dunn said the team was "thrilled" to learn the satellite successfully began its two-year mission. The launch went according to plan, but communications signals temporarily went dead. The team was still able to track Iris from the ground by using satellites already in orbit.
"This is a very difficult region to understand and observe," NASA program scientist Jeffrey Newmark said. "We haven't had the technical capabilities before now to really zoom in."
Despite its unique mission, Iris will be able to do what most satellites have already done. The seven-foot, 400-pound satellite carries an ultraviolet telescope and will be able to snap high-resolution images of the sun and send them to Earth. Previous satellites have already delivered plenty of information on the sun, as well as stunning photos.
The launch is also relatively cheap, at least by NASA's standards, at $182 million. Engineers will spend about a month fine-tuning the satellite before it begins its observations.
NASA already has the Solar Dynamics Observatory, which is dedicated to studying the sun, in place. Iris will take a closer look at a much more specific and less observed area of the sun.
Iris' objective is to help scientists learn more about solar winds driven from this region and better forecast when they will occur.
Solar winds are a stream of charged particles coming off of the sun and they are known to disrupt communications signals on Earth.
