Video: Tower rollback prior to launch of Mars Pathfinder atop a Delta 2

A Delta 2 rocket boosted by nine strap-on motors and two liquid-fueled stages will launch NOAA’s JPSS 1 weather satellite into a 511-mile-high (822-kilometer) orbit following liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

A team of United Launch Alliance and NASA engineers worked through Delta 2 launch day fueling procedures during a simulated countdown Wednesday for what should be the second-to-last time before the venerable rocket’s final liftoff next month from California’s Central Coast.

NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive satellite blasts off aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket Saturday, launching into orbit on a three-year mission to measure moisture levels in Earth’s soils.