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NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, CALIF. -- Inside the clean-room "tent" of Building 1555 at North Vandenberg Air Force Base, technicians in bunny suits prepare for the solar array deployment on the AIM spacecraft. The AIM spacecraft will fly three instruments designed to study polar mesospheric clouds located at the edge of space, 50 miles above the Earth's surface in the coldest part of the planet's atmosphere. The mission's primary goal is to explain why these clouds form and what has caused them to become brighter and more numerous and appear at lower latitudes in recent years. AIM's results will provide the basis for the study of long-term variability in the mesospheric climate and its relationship to global climate change. AIM is scheduled to be mated to the Pegasus XL during the second week of April, after which final inspections will be conducted. Launch is scheduled for April 25. KSC-07pd0692

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, an overhead crane lowers the canister that will complete encapsulation of the Mars Exploration Rover 2 (MER-2), at right. After encapsulation, MER-2 will be transferred to Launch Complex 17-A, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. MER-2 is one of NASA's twin Mars Exploration Rovers designed to study the history of water on Mars. These robotic geologists are equipped with a robotic arm, a drilling tool, three spectrometers, and four pairs of cameras that allow them to have a human-like, 3D view of the terrain. Each rover could travel as far as 100 meters in one day to act as Mars scientists' eyes and hands, exploring an environment where humans can't yet go. MER-2 is scheduled to launch no earlier than June 8 as MER-A aboard a Delta II rocket.

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Inside Orbital Sciences' processing facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, technicians pull a plastic cover over NASA's NuSTAR spacecraft and the tilt-rotation fixture. The spacecraft will be rotated to horizontal for joining with the Pegasus XL rocket. The Orbital Sciences Pegasus will launch NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array NuSTAR into space. After the rocket and spacecraft are processed at Vandenberg, they will be flown on Orbital's L-1011 carrier aircraft to the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site at the Pacific Ocean’s Kwajalein Atoll for launch. The high-energy x-ray telescope will conduct a census for black holes, map radioactive material in young supernovae remnants, and study the origins of cosmic rays and the extreme physics around collapsed stars. For more information, visit science.nasa.gov/missions/nustar/. Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin, VAFB KSC-2012-1385

NASA Space Science. NASA public domain image colelction.

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Inside the Astrotech processing facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base, workers attach an overhead crane to the OSTM/Jason-2 spacecraft. The spacecraft will be moved to a tilt dolly. The OSTM, or Ocean Topography Mission, on the Jason-2 satellite is a follow-on to Jason-1. It will take oceanographic studies of sea surface height into an operational mode for continued climate forecasting research and science and industrial applications. This satellite altimetry data will help determine ocean circulation, climate change and sea-level rise. OSTM is a joint effort by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA, France’s Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales and the European Meteorological Satellite Organisation. OSTM/Jason-2 will be launched aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II 7320 from Vandenberg on June 15. Photo credit: NASA/Mark Mackley KSC-08pd1301

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft / SOLAR PANEL INSTALL

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- In the Spacecraft Assembly and Encapsulation Facility -2 (SAEF-2), workers check on the fitting between the Mars Climate Orbiter (above) and the third stage of the Boeing Delta II launch vehicle (below). The third stage is a solid-propellant Thiokol Star 48B booster, the same final stage used in the 1996 launch of Mars Global Surveyor. Targeted for launch on Dec. 10, 1998, the orbiter is heading for Mars where it will primarily support its companion Mars Polar Lander spacecraft, which is planned for launch on Jan. 3, 1999. The orbiter's instruments will monitor the Martian atmosphere and image the planet's surface on a daily basis for 687 Earth days. It will observe the appearance and movement of atmospheric dust and water vapor, as well as characterize seasonal changes on the surface. The detailed images of the surface features will provide important clues to the planet's early climate history and give scientists more information about possible liquid water reserves beneath the surface KSC-98pc1736

Technicians at Astrotech's payload processing facility in Titusville, Fla. monitor NASA's Juno spacecraft, as it is lifted by an overhead crane, for its move to a rotation stand for center of gravity, weighing and balancing testing. Juno is scheduled to launch aboard United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla. Aug. 5.The solar-powered spacecraft will orbit Jupiter's poles 33 times to find out more about the gas giant's origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere and investigate the existence of a solid planetary core. For more information visit: www.nasa.gov/juno. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-2011-4629

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Technicians at Astrotech's payload processing facility in Titusville, Fla. monitor NASA's Juno spacecraft, as it is lifted by an overhead crane, for its move to a rotation stand for center of gravity, weighing and balancing testing. Juno is scheduled to launch aboard United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla. Aug. 5.The solar-powered spacecraft will orbit Jupiter's poles 33 times to find out more about the gas giant's origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere and investigate the existence of a solid planetary core. For more information visit: www.nasa.gov/juno. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

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elv juno atlas v kennedy space center technicians astrotech payload titusville juno spacecraft juno spacecraft move rotation gravity launch atlas rocket launch alliance atlas v rocket cape canaveral orbit jupiter orbit jupiter poles times gas giant gas giant origins atmosphere magnetosphere existence core information visit high resolution satellite nasa
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16/06/2011
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Launch Control Center ,  28.58583, -80.65088
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NASA
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https://images.nasa.gov/
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Public Domain Dedication (CC0)

label_outline Explore Elv Juno Atlas V, Orbit Jupiter, Gas Giant

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Workers inspect the solar arrays on the Magnetospheric Multiscale, or MMS, observatories in the Building 1 D high bay of the Astrotech payload processing facility in Titusville, Florida, near Kennedy Space Center. The two MMS spacecraft comprising the upper deck arrived Nov. 12; the two comprising the lower stack arrived Oct. 29. MMS, led by a team from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, is a Solar Terrestrial Probes mission consisting of four identically instrumented spacecraft that will use Earth’s magnetosphere as a laboratory to study the microphysics of three fundamental plasma processes: magnetic reconnection, energetic particle acceleration and turbulence. Launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is targeted for March 12, 2015. To learn more about MMS, visit http://mms.gsfc.nasa.gov. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-2014-4492

040820-F-3208M-097 (Aug. 20, 2004)Dr. Camille Curtis (right) receives a thank you kiss from Ross, a west highland terrier, belonging to Mrs. Dawn Cote, wife of US Air Force (USAF) CAPT. David Cote, 355th Communications Squadron, 355th Mission Support Group (MSG), Davis-Monthan Air Force Base (AFB), Arizona (AZ). The reason for the existence of the veterinarian clinic at the AFB is to treat the military working dogs. It is a courtesy to treat the pets of its military members.U.S. Air Force official photo by STAFF SGT. Lanie McNeal (RELEASED)

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Technicians at Astrotech in Titusville, Fla., carry a solar panel toward NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft for installation. It is one of two large solar panels, supplemented with a nickel-hydrogen battery, that will provide MESSENGER’s power. MESSENGER is scheduled to launch Aug. 2 aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket from Pad 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. It will return to Earth for a gravity boost in July 2005, then fly past Venus twice, in October 2006 and June 2007. The spacecraft uses the tug of Venus’ gravity to resize and rotate its trajectory closer to Mercury’s orbit. Three Mercury flybys, each followed about two months later by a course-correction maneuver, put MESSENGER in position to enter Mercury orbit in March 2011. During the flybys, MESSENGER will map nearly the entire planet in color, image most of the areas unseen by Mariner 10, and measure the composition of the surface, atmosphere and magnetosphere. It will be the first new data from Mercury in more than 30 years - and invaluable for planning MESSENGER’s year-long orbital mission. MESSENGER was built for NASA by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. KSC-04pd1339

NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft. NASA public domain image colelction.

Juno spacecraft deploying solar arrays

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Two of the observatories, the lower stack, mini-stack number 1, for NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale Observatory, or MMS, glides toward a payload dolly during uncrating operations in the Building 2 south encapsulation bay at the Astrotech payload processing facility in Titusville, Florida, near Kennedy Space Center. The MMS upper stack, mini-stack number 2, is scheduled to arrive in about two weeks. MMS is a Solar Terrestrial Probes mission comprising four identically instrumented spacecraft that will use Earth’s magnetosphere as a laboratory to study the microphysics of three fundamental plasma processes: magnetic reconnection, energetic particle acceleration and turbulence. Launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is targeted for March 12, 2015. To learn more about MMS, visit http://mms.gsfc.nasa.gov. Photo credit: NASA/Dan Casper KSC-2014-4345

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – A crane is lowered toward the lower stack, mini-stack number 1, two of the observatories for NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale Observatory, or MMS, during uncrating operations in the Building 2 south encapsulation bay at the Astrotech payload processing facility in Titusville, Florida, near Kennedy Space Center. The MMS upper stack, mini-stack number 2, is scheduled to arrive in about two weeks. MMS is a Solar Terrestrial Probes mission comprising four identically instrumented spacecraft that will use Earth’s magnetosphere as a laboratory to study the microphysics of three fundamental plasma processes: magnetic reconnection, energetic particle acceleration and turbulence. Launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is targeted for March 12, 2015. To learn more about MMS, visit http://mms.gsfc.nasa.gov. Photo credit: NASA/Dan Casper KSC-2014-4344

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – At Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, technicians follow the movement of NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, mission spacecraft toward the mobile stand in the foreground. The IBEX satellite will make the first map of the boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space. IBEX is the first mission designed to detect the edge of the Solar System. As the solar wind from the sun flows out beyond Pluto, it collides with the material between the stars, forming a shock front. IBEX contains two neutral atom imagers designed to detect particles from the termination shock at the boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space. IBEX also will study galactic cosmic rays, energetic particles from beyond the Solar System that pose a health and safety hazard for humans exploring beyond Earth orbit. IBEX will make these observations from a highly elliptical orbit that takes it beyond the interference of the Earth's magnetosphere. IBEX is targeted for launch from the Pegasus XL rocket on Oct. 5. Photo credit: NASA KSC-08pd2410

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – At Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, a bracket is attached to the Star-27 kick motor for NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, mission spacecraft. The motor will be lifted and moved to the waiting adapter cone. The IBEX satellite will make the first map of the boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space. IBEX is the first mission designed to detect the edge of the Solar System. As the solar wind from the sun flows out beyond Pluto, it collides with the material between the stars, forming a shock front. IBEX contains two neutral atom imagers designed to detect particles from the termination shock at the boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space. IBEX also will study galactic cosmic rays, energetic particles from beyond the Solar System that pose a health and safety hazard for humans exploring beyond Earth orbit. IBEX will make these observations from a highly elliptical orbit that takes it beyond the interference of the Earth's magnetosphere. IBEX is targeted for launch from the Pegasus XL rocket on Oct. 5. Photo credit: NASA/R. Bledsoe KSC-08pd2415

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – At Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, at right is the NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, spacecraft. At left are the Star-27 kick motor and nozzle for IBEX “on top” and the adapter cone, part of the IBEX flight system, underneath. The IBEX is being prepared for a spin balance test. The IBEX satellite will make the first map of the boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space. IBEX is the first mission designed to detect the edge of the Solar System. As the solar wind from the sun flows out beyond Pluto, it collides with the material between the stars, forming a shock front. IBEX contains two neutral atom imagers designed to detect particles from the termination shock at the boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space. IBEX also will study galactic cosmic rays, energetic particles from beyond the Solar System that pose a health and safety hazard for humans exploring beyond Earth orbit. IBEX will make these observations from a highly elliptical orbit that takes it beyond the interference of the Earth's magnetosphere. IBEX is targeted for launch from a Pegasus XL rocket on Oct. 5. Photo credit: NASA/VAFB KSC-08pd2505

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - At Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the Star-27 kick motor and nozzle for NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, spacecraft is seen “on top” and the adapter cone, part of the IBEX flight system, underneath. The IBEX satellite will make the first map of the boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space. IBEX is the first mission designed to detect the edge of the Solar System. As the solar wind from the sun flows out beyond Pluto, it collides with the material between the stars, forming a shock front. IBEX contains two neutral atom imagers designed to detect particles from the termination shock at the boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space. IBEX also will study galactic cosmic rays, energetic particles from beyond the Solar System that pose a health and safety hazard for humans exploring beyond Earth orbit. IBEX will make these observations from a highly elliptical orbit that takes it beyond the interference of the Earth's magnetosphere. IBEX is targeted for launch from a Pegasus XL rocket on Oct. 5. Photo credit: NASA/VAFB KSC-08pd2507

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - At Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, spacecraft is lifted toward a spin stand (behind it) for testing. The IBEX satellite will make the first map of the boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space. IBEX is the first mission designed to detect the edge of the Solar System. As the solar wind from the sun flows out beyond Pluto, it collides with the material between the stars, forming a shock front. IBEX contains two neutral atom imagers designed to detect particles from the termination shock at the boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space. IBEX also will study galactic cosmic rays, energetic particles from beyond the Solar System that pose a health and safety hazard for humans exploring beyond Earth orbit. IBEX will make these observations from a highly elliptical orbit that takes it beyond the interference of the Earth's magnetosphere. IBEX is targeted for launch from a Pegasus XL rocket on Oct. 5. Photo credit: NASA/VAFB KSC-08pd2508

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elv juno atlas v kennedy space center technicians astrotech payload titusville juno spacecraft juno spacecraft move rotation gravity launch atlas rocket launch alliance atlas v rocket cape canaveral orbit jupiter orbit jupiter poles times gas giant gas giant origins atmosphere magnetosphere existence core information visit high resolution satellite nasa