KSC-01PP1025

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- On Launch Complex 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the first stage of a Boeing Delta rocket arrives at the pad. When fully assembled, the rocket is scheduled to launch the MAP instrument June 30 into a lunar-assisted trajectory to the Sun-Earth for a 27-month mission. MAP 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. It is a product of Goddard Space Flight Center in partnership with Princeton University

Date: 2001-05-24
Collection: KSC
Archive: NASA Image and Video Library
Type: photograph