Photos: Delta 4-Heavy launch gallery

The booster rocket that will launch NASA’s next-generation Orion space capsule on a two-orbit, four-hour shakedown cruise in December has been rolled to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral.

A countdown dress rehearsal and rocket fueling exercise was completed at Cape Canaveral for next month’s launch of NASA’s Orion crew module atop a United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy booster.

July is a month of rich rewards for Alan Stern, the scientist who shepherded the New Horizons spacecraft from the drawing board to Pluto, and the payoff will be sweet.