With smoke and steam rolling across the launch pad, a Delta IV rocket clears the tower with the GOES-O satellite aboard. Liftoff was at 6:51 p.m. EDT from Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The first attempt to launch GOES-O, on June 26, was scrubbed due to thunderstorms in the vicinity of Cape Canaveral. The latest Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, GOES-O was developed by NASA for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA. Each of the GOES satellites continuously provides observations of 60 percent of the Earth including the continental United States, providing weather monitoring and forecast operations as well as a continuous and reliable stream of environmental information and severe weather warnings. Once in orbit, GOES-O will be designated GOES-14, and NASA will provide on-orbit checkout and then transfer operational responsibility to NOAA. Photo credit: NASA/Tony Gray, Gina Mitchell
On Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the crane lowers the orbiter access arm, which ends in the White Room, toward the ground. The arm is being removed from the Fixed Service Structure for the pad's conversion as launch site for the Constellation Program's Ares I-X. The launch of the Ares I-X flight test is targeted for August 2009. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
The rotating service structure is closed around space shuttle Endeavour on Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida after its launch for the STS-127 mission was scrubbed at 1:55 a.m. EDT June 17 due to a gaseous hydrogen leak at the Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate. Endeavour’s next launch attempt for the mission is targeted for July 11 at 7:39 p.m. EDT. Photo credit: NASA/Ken Thornsley
Fire and smoke signal the liftoff of the Atlas V/Centaur carrying NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, and NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, known as LCROSS, toward orbit around the moon. Launch from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida was on-time at 5:32 p.m. EDT. The towers around the pad are part of the lightning protection system. LRO and LCROSS are the first missions in NASA's plan to return humans to the moon and begin establishing a lunar outpost by 2020. The LRO also includes seven instruments that will help NASA characterize the moon's surface: DIVINER, LAMP, LEND, LOLA , CRATER, Mini-RF and LROC. Photo credit: NASA/Tom Farrar, Kevin O'Connell
On Launch Complex-41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the Atlas V/Centaur rocket with NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, and NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, known as LCROSS, on top roll out to the launch pad. At right are the protective lightning towers that surround the pad. LRO and LCROSS are the first missions in NASA's plan to return humans to the moon and begin establishing a lunar outpost by 2020. The LRO also includes seven instruments that will help NASA characterize the moon's surface: DIVINER, LAMP, LEND, LOLA, CRATER, Mini-RF and LROC. Launch is scheduled for 5:22 p.m. EDT June 18 . Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller
This NASA photo of Space Shuttle Endeavour on the Launch Pad shows the relative location of the Hydrogen vent line & GUCP (ground umbilical carrier plate). Visible just to the left of the solid rocket booster, the vent line can be seen reaching from the fixed service structure (out of frame) to the orange external fuel tank at the 167 foot level. Also visible in the picture is the gaseous oxygen vent arm (top of tank) and the crew orbiter access arm to the right of the picture.
At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, employees gather to watch the Ares I-X forward assembly (comprising the frustum, forward skirt extension and forward skirt) as it moves out of the Assembly and Refurbishment Facility. The assembly is being transferred to the Vehicle Assembly Building's High Bay 4 for processing and stacking to the upper stage. Ares I-X is the flight test for the Ares I which will provide NASA an early opportunity to test and prove hardware, facilities and ground operations associated with Ares I, which is part of the Constellation Program to return men to the moon and beyond. Launch of the Ares I-X flight test is targeted for August 2009. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller
On Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a crane removes the oxygen vent hood, called the "beanie cap," and the gaseous oxygen vent arm from the fixed service structure. A portion of the service structure is being removed for the pad's conversion as launch site for the Constellation Program's Ares I-X. The launch of the Ares I-X flight test is targeted for August 2009. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann
Sunrise breaks on the mate/demate device at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Space shuttle Atlantis will be lifted from the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or SCA, underneath and lowered to the ground. Atlantis returned from California atop the SCA after its May 24 landing at Edwards Air Force Base, concluding mission STS-125. The ferry flight from Edwards Air Force Base began June 1. Atlantis' next assignment is the STS-129 mission, targeted to launch in November 2009. Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis
Space shuttle Atlantis is towed from the runway at Edwards Air Force Base in California after landing to conclude the 13-day mission to refurbish and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. Main gear touchdown was at 11:39:05 a.m. EDT. Nose gear touchdown was at 11:39:15 a.m. Wheel stop was at 11:40:15 a.m., bringing the mission’s elapsed time to 12 days, 21 hours, 37 minutes, 9 seconds. Landing opportunities on May 22, May 23 and May 24 were waved off due to weather concerns at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the shuttle’s primary landing site. Photo credit: NASA/Tony Landis
May 25 rollout of the Soyuz TMA 15 spacecraft to the pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Expedition 20 crew is winding down pre-launch activities in preparation for the May 27 launch. Photo Credit: NASA
Astronaut John Grunsfeld, STS-125 mission specialist, positioned on a foot restraint on the end of Atlantis' remote manipulator system (RMS), and astronaut Andrew Feustel (top center), mission specialist, participate in the mission's fifth and final session of extravehicular activity (EVA) as work continues to refurbish and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. During the seven-hour and two-minute spacewalk, Grunsfeld and Feustel installed a battery group replacement, removed and replaced a Fine Guidance Sensor and three thermal blankets (NOBL) protecting Hubble's electronics. Photo Credit: NASA
An almost nadir view of the John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) was provided by one of the STS-125 crewmembers on the Earth-orbiting Space Shuttle Atlantis. KSC is the NASA space vehicle launch facility and launch control center (spaceport) on Merritt Island, Brevard County, Florida. Photo Credit: NASA
This view from the Cassini spacecraft looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 30 degrees above the ringplane. The rings have been brightened relative to the planet to enhance visibility. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Feb. 24, 2009 at a distance of approximately 866,000 kilometers (538,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 38 kilometers (24 miles) per pixel. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute