Orbital ATK to Launch NASA ICON Mission from Remote US Army Facility

On 15 June local time/14 June EST,Orbital ATK will launch NASA's Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) satellite,the first ionospheric probe to be launched in 10 years.The mission will attempt to fill in some of the gaps in our knowledge about this mysterious transition zone between Earth's atmosphere and outer space,where a plasma of charged particles from the Sun can distort or even completely disrupt telecommunications and GPS signals,and which can be difficult for spacecraft to navigate because of the variable drag they may experience there.The spacecraft will be launched on Orbital's Pegasus XL rocket which will be dropped from under the wing of their Stargazer L1011 aircraft,a converted Lockheed airliner.
Our increased situational awareness of the region will help protect astronauts and satellites alike,NASA said.*
On 6 June,the Stargazer will ferry Pegasus to US Army Kwajalein Atoll (USAKA),Republic of the Marshall Islands,in the distant reaches of the Pacific Ocean,by way of a refueling stop at Hickam Air Force Base,Hawaii,on a 12-hour flight in total.Kwajalein Atoll,a group of 11 islands the US Army leases from the Marshall Islands,is home of the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site,informally called the Reagan Test Site (RTS),which is primarily a test facility for US missile defence and space research programmes.The Site,under the US Army Missile and Space Command, provides range instrumentation;missile launch facilities;a mission control centre;range safety;meteorological support;and support for space operations.
A suite of unique instrumentation on the Atoll's islands includes precision metric and signature radars;stationary and mobile telemetry;optical recording;and a secure fiberoptic data network.RTS is a tracking station for crewed spaceflight and NASA research,as well as a facility for ICBM tests;ABM interceptor tests;meteorological sounding rockets;and a commercial spaceport for SpaceX on Omelek Island.*
The islands of Kwajalein Atoll encircle a huge central lagoon that is a splashdown site for US Strategic Command's ICBM re-entry vehicles (warheads),for example.The broad range of sensitive national security activity at the RTS encompasses hypersonic weapons tests;NASA research projects;ICBM tests;and Ballistic Missile Defence Tests (main US facility).Bechtel Corporation provides logistical and other support functions at RTS,and a civilian workforce of Marshall Islanders is employed there.*
The US Army's Lockheed Martin Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system (THAAD) was developed at RTS.*
Orbital ATK (OA),Lockheed Martin (LMT)