Photos: Gantry rollback from Delta 2

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.

From weather forecasting to agricultural benefits, a new NASA mission launching this week will provide unprecedented resolution, accuracy and coverage of soil moisture on a world-wide basis every three days for the next three years.

Firefly Aerospace is asking academic institutions, startup companies and the public to submit ideas for payloads to launch, free of charge, on the inaugural orbital flight of the company’s Alpha rocket next year from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.