The IRIS Mission - development of the observatory and ground systems

The Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) is a NASA Small Explorer Mission that was launched on 27 June 2013. Its goal is to discover how the outer atmosphere of the Sun is energized. The investigation is conducted with a free-flying observatory in a sun-synchronous, low earth orbit, a mission operations center and ground data system at NASA Ames Research Center, and a ground network supported by NASA NEN ground stations and the Norwegian ground stations at Svalbard. The observatory consists of a spacecraft bus that includes the attitude control system, the power control system, the command and data handling system, and the RF communications system and the scientific instrument including a 20 cm telescope, an imaging spectrograph, and supporting electronics. This paper describes the development and testing of the observatory and the ground data system, highlighting the unique aspects of this mission.