Photos: Gantry rollback from Delta 2

The final flight of a Delta 2 rocket, a mainstay of the U.S. launch industry for nearly 30 years, began at 6:02 a.m. PDT (9:02 a.m. EDT; 1302 GMT) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California with NASA’s ICESat 2 Earth science satellite.

There’s a new launch being added to Vandenberg Air Force Base’s schedules — another Delta 4 rocket flight for the National Reconnaissance Office.

Deploying its marquee element in space Tuesday, NASA’s new Soil Moisture Active Passive spacecraft took a major step towards realizing its science potential.