Ionospheric Connection Explorer
ICON (Explorer 96) satellite | |||||||||||
| Names | Explorer 96 ICON | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mission type | Ionospheric research | ||||||||||
| Operator | UC Berkeley SSL / NASA | ||||||||||
| COSPAR ID | 2019-068A | ||||||||||
| SATCAT no. | 44628 | ||||||||||
| Website | icon | ||||||||||
| Mission duration | 2 years (planned) Final: 3 years, 1 month, 14 days | ||||||||||
| Spacecraft properties | |||||||||||
| Spacecraft | Explorer XCVI | ||||||||||
| Spacecraft type | Ionospheric Connection Explorer | ||||||||||
| Bus | LEOStar-2 | ||||||||||
| Manufacturer | University of California, Berkeley / Northrop Grumman | ||||||||||
| Launch mass | 288 kg (635 lb) | ||||||||||
| Dimensions | Height: 193 cm (76 in) and 106 cm (42 in) of diameter Solar panel: 254 × 84 cm (100 × 33 in) | ||||||||||
| Power | 780 watts | ||||||||||
| Start of mission | |||||||||||
| Launch date | 11 October 2019, 02:00 UTC | ||||||||||
| Rocket | Pegasus XL (F44) | ||||||||||
| Launch site | Cape Canaveral Skid Strip, Stargazer | ||||||||||
| Contractor | Northrop Grumman | ||||||||||
| Entered service | 15 November 2019 | ||||||||||
| End of mission | |||||||||||
| Disposal | Contact loss | ||||||||||
| Declared | 24 July 2024 | ||||||||||
| Last contact | 25 November 2022 | ||||||||||
| Orbital parameters | |||||||||||
| Reference system | Geocentric orbit | ||||||||||
| Regime | Low Earth orbit | ||||||||||
| Perigee altitude | 575 km (357 mi) | ||||||||||
| Apogee altitude | 603 km (375 mi) | ||||||||||
| Inclination | 27.00° | ||||||||||
| Period | 97.00 minutes | ||||||||||
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Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) was a NASA satellite designed to investigate changes in the ionosphere of Earth, the dynamic region high in the atmosphere where terrestrial weather from below meets space weather from above. ICON studied the interaction between Earth's weather systems and space weather driven by the Sun, and how this interaction drives turbulence in the upper atmosphere. NASA hoped that a better understanding of this dynamic would mitigate its effects on communications, GPS signals, and technology in general. It was part of NASA's Explorer program and was operated by University of California, Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory.
On 12 April 2013, NASA announced that ICON, along with Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD), had been selected for development with the cost capped at US$200 million, excluding launch costs. The principal investigator of ICON was Thomas Immel at the University of California, Berkeley.
ICON was originally scheduled to launch in June 2017 and was repeatedly delayed because of problems with its Pegasus XL launch vehicle. It was next due to launch on 26 October 2018 but the launch was rescheduled to 7 November 2018, and postponed again just 28 minutes before launch. ICON was successfully launched on 11 October 2019, at 02:00 UTC.
On 25 November 2022, contact with ICON was unexpectedly lost for unclear reasons. In July 2024, the mission was formally ended after repeated attempts to regain contact with the satellite had failed.