Posted: Fri, Jun 28, 2013, 8:17 AM ET (1217 GMT)
A Pegasus rocket successfully launched on Thursday evening a small NASA satellite designed to study the Sun. The Pegasus XL rocket was released by its L-1011 carrier aircraft off the coast of California and ignited its rocket motors at 10:27 pm EDT Thursday (0227 GMT Friday), placing the 200-kilogram Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) spacecraft into sun-synchronous orbit 13 minutes later. IRIS will study a region of the Sun's atmosphere that heats the solar corona to temperatures of millions of degrees. The launch is the 42nd for the Pegasus, dating back more than two decades; there are currently no future Pegasus launches scheduled.

Related Links:

•  Spaceflight Now article
•  CBS News article
•  SPACE.com article
•  AP article
•  NASA press release