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Description

Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. – At Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, waits to be covered so it can be moved to another facility for mating with the Pegasus XL rocket. Designed to detect the edge of the Solar System, the IBEX satellite will make the first map of the boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space. IBEX is targeted for launch from the Kwajalein Atoll, a part of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean, on Oct. 19. Photo credit: NASA/Mark Mackley, VAFB