[Satellite TODAY 12-17-10] Lockheed Martin has met the requirements of a critical design review for NASA’s Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) small explorer mission, the prime contractor announced Dec. 16.
    The IRIS spacecraft is being developed to fly in a Sun-synchronous polar orbit and provide continuous solar observations on a two-year mission for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
    “With IRIS, we have a unique opportunity to provide significant missing pieces in our understanding of energy transport on the Sun. The complex processes and enormous contrasts of density, temperature and magnetic field within this interface region require instrument and modeling capabilities that are now finally within our reach,” Lockheed Martin’s Principal IRIS Physicist Alan Title said in a statement.
    NASA awarded Lockheed Martin a contract in 2009 to lead a team to design and build IRIS. Mission costs will be capped at $105 million, excluding the launch vehicle.