IBEX Launch

    Spacecraft: Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX)
    Launch Vehicle: Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL Rocket
    Launch Location: Reagan Test Site, Kwajalein Atoll
    Launch Date: Oct. 19, 2008
    Launch Time: 1:48 p.m. EDT

    IBEX: Mapping the Boundaries of Our Solar System
    Pegasus under the L-1011 before drop
    Image above: An early morning view of the Pegasus XL rocket suspended underneath Orbital Sciences' L-1011 aircraft prior to drop. Photo credit: NASA
    NASA's IBEX spacecraft launched from an Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket at 1:48 p.m. EDT on Oct. 19, 2008 from the Reagan Test Site on the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

    IBEX is the first NASA spacecraft to image and map the dynamic interactions taking place where the hot solar wind slams into the cold expanse of space.

    › View Launch Video
    › IBEX Newsletter
    › IBEX Photo Gallery

Features

IBEX Launch Tests Telemetry and Communications Group

Launch controllers on console inside the Mission Director's Center

NASA's Launch Services Program must be able to launch any vehicle, anytime, from anywhere in the world. The Telemetry and Communications Group helps make it happen.

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Special Delivery: The Pegasus XL Rocket

Orbital Sciences Stargazer L-1011 aircraft

The Pegasus XL rocket launches big things in small packages.

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IBEX Launch Control Center

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