The launch of NASA’s twin GRAIL spacecraft

NOAA’s new JPSS 1 weather satellite deployed from its Delta 2 launcher in an orbit more than 500 miles above Earth nearly one hour after blasting off from California.

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.

The Mobile Service Tower at LC-17B is rolled away from the Delta 2 rocket that launched NASA’s Mars Pathfinder mission on its way to the red planet on December 4, 1996. This video includes footage shot inside the blockhouse at the launch pad.