The new orbiter will orbit in the ionosphere and study the interactions of Earth and space weather. (Credit: ASA Goddard’s Conceptual Image Lab/B. Monroe)

NASA will launch its Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) satellite on Wednesday, October 9, from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 9:30 p.m. EDT.

The new satellite will orbit Earth, studying what happens when space weather and Earth weather interact in Earth’s ionosphere, the atmosphere level populated by ions and fr