On October 29th 2014, the ICON mission was reviewed at NASA Headquarters, where the project presented the status of the project, focusing on the work that had been done to design and formulate the mission to the Science Mission Directorate and the Deputy Administrator for Programs at NASA HQ. At this review ICON was successfully confirmed and was directed to proceed with formulation the mission.

The team has been working together through the successful Mission Preliminary Design Review in July and in the months that followed to reach this key milestones. Preparation for this step has also been a focus for colleagues in the Explorers Office at Goddard Space Flight Center and in the Heliophysics Division at HQ. Everyone involved is excited to proceed with the implementation of the mission!

The ICON Mission has now passed its Preliminary Design Review, where it is determined whether the design of the observatory and ground segment meet the mission requirements. After a season of 35 peer and design reviews that started back in April, the documentation and design for the Explorer were delivered and presented to the Standing Review Board at Orbital. Congratulations to the whole team are due, it has been an amazing effort!

Update — NASA has selected ICON to be the next Heliophysics Explorer satellite mission. The Ionospheric Connection Explorer was selected along with a Mission Of Opportunity (GOLD; Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk) to move forward into development (Phase B). ICON, to be lead by the University of California, Berkeley will provide NASA’s Heliophysics division with a powerful new capability to determine the conditions in space modified by weather on the planet, and to understand the way space weather events grow to envelop regions of our planet with dense ionospheric plasma.

Link to the official announcement.