KSC-01padig-235

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. -- The Boeing Delta II rocket is poised for flight on Launch Complex 17-A, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, after rollback of the Mobile Service Tower (right). Topping the rocket is the payload, the Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) spacecraft. Launch is scheduled at 3:46 p.m. EDT June 30. The launch will place MAP into a lunar-assisted trajectory to the Sun-Earth for a 27-month mission. The probe will measure small fluctuations in the temperature of the cosmic microwave background radiation to an accuracy of one millionth of a degree. These measurements should reveal the size, matter content, age, geometry and fate of the universe. They will also reveal the primordial structure that grew to form galaxies and will test ideas about the origins of these primordial structures. The MAP instrument will be continuously shaded from the Sun, Earth, and Moon by the spacecraft. The probe is a product of Goddard Space Flight Center in partnership with Princeton University

Date

2001-06-30

Photographer / author

NASA or National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection

KSC

Archive

NASA Image and Video Library

Type

photograph

Need photos for a whole script? Add Find Any Photo to Claude and ask for this one by its id: 17051.