Photos: Gantry rollback from Delta 2

This photo gallery shows NASA’s SMAP spacecraft arriving at the launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base’s Space Launch Complex 2 and being hoisted atop the United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket.

A United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket climbed into space Saturday from California with a $1.6 billion polar-orbiting weather satellite for NOAA, the first of four upgraded observatories designed to keep vital meteorological data flowing to forecasters for the next two decades.

Making a scientific measurement of planet Earth on a global scale never before attempted by NASA is the objective of an environment satellite to be mounted atop its booster rocket Tuesday in California.