The InfraRed Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) was a joint American, Dutch and British project. The satellite was launched in January 1983 to survey the whole sky in the infrared, specifically at wavebands centred around 12, 25, 60 and 100 micron. The satellite was cooled using liquid helium, and the mission ended in November 1983 when the helium ran out and the telescope started to warm up. In addition to the 62 main survey detectors, the satellite contained a Chopped Photometric Channel (CPC) sensitive at 50 and 100 micron, and a slitless Low Resolution Spectrometer (LRS) sensitive between 7.7 and 23 micron. About 60% of the mission time was used for the all-sky survey, leaving around 40% of the time for engineering tests, calibration observations and pointed observations of interesting objects. It was planned to release a catalogue of point sources, a catalogue of sources which were slightly extended, a catalogue of spectra, and small maps (in FITS format) of the pointed observations. In fact, many other data products are available, and due to new image processing techniques, high quality images using the IRAS survey data have been produced.