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.
Bound for an orbital rendezvous with the International Space Station on Wednesday, a commercial Cygnus freighter was successfully launched by an Atlas 5 rocket Sunday to restart American cargo deliveries to the research outpost.
An Argentine satellite hosting a NASA sensor designed to measure the saltiness of Earth’s oceans has ended its mission after four years in orbit, NASA said Wednesday.
The United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket lifts off with NASA’s SMAP observatory at 6:22 a.m. local time on Saturday, Jan. 31 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive satellite blasts off aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket Saturday, launching into orbit on a three-year mission to measure moisture levels in Earth’s soils.
The mobile service tower is retracted from the United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base in preparation for the first launch attempt of NASA’s SMAP spacecraft.
The weather outlook is 80 percent favorable for launch of the Delta 2 rocket early Thursday morning from California, with cloud thickness posing the only worry, meteorologists report.