SpaceFlight Insider: NASA’s Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) with solar panels, seen here in the clean room at the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, where it was designed and built. Photo Credit: NASA/Lockheed Martin NASA has decided to extend science operations of its IRIS space observatory dedicated to studying the Sun’s lower atmosphere. The $19.4 million extension contract awarded by the agency secures the manufacturer’s support for the mission through September 2018 and provides additional cooperation with ground observatories worldwide. IRIS, short for the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, is a small satellite that observes the Sun via its ultraviolet telescope with the aim to advance our understanding of how the heat and energy move through the solar lower atmosphere. IRIS’ first glimpses of the Sun. The fine detail in images of prominences in the Sun’s atmosphere from NASA’s Interface Region Imaging Spectrometer – such as the red swirls shown here – are challenging the way scientists understand such events. Image Credit: NASA Since its launch in June 2013, the 403-pound (183-kilogram) spacecraft has delivered an abundance of high-resolution images of the Sun and obtained a multitude of groundbreaking scientific data. Therefore, the recent extension is good news for heliophysics ...