The 8-million-pound mobile service tower is retracted from around the Atlas 5 rocket, revealing the 20-story-tall vehicle for liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
The mighty Titan — a pillar in American rocketry for five decades — flew into orbit for the final time Wednesday, capping a distinguished career of heavy-lifting that has spanned the nation’s space age.
The first in NOAA’s new series of polar-orbiting weather satellites has been lifted atop United Launch Alliance’s second-to-last Delta 2 rocket on a launch pad in California, ready for encapsulation and final checkouts ahead of a predawn launch set for Nov. 10.
