IRIS-LAGEOS 2 mission

An important step towards the evolution of Italian space and scientific activities was accomplished some years ago with an agreement between the Italian Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche—Piano Spaziale Nazionale (National Research Council—National Space Plan) and NASA, the U.S. Space Agency, for developing and launching LAGEOS 2, a scientific satellite to be utilized for geodesy research. This paper will describe the scientific objectives of the IRIS-LAGEOS 2 mission. It will also give full details, characteristics and performances of the LAGEOS system and its launcher, IRIS, an upper stage to be used in conjunction with the Space Shuttle. An overview of ground and flight operations is provided as well as the mission plan. The industrial organization in charge of developing both systems is briefly indicated.