KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The Boeing Delta II rocket with NASA's Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR) spacecraft attached is visible as the launch tower is rolled back. The launch is scheduled for 2:47 a.m. EDT July 3 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. Designed and built by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., the 2,138-pound (970-kilogram) spacecraft will be placed into an elliptical Earth orbit until Aug. 15, when it is scheduled to fire its main engine and enter a comet-chasing orbit around the sun. The mission's flexible four-year plan includes encounters with comets Encke (Nov. 12, 2003) and Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 (June 19, 2006), though it can add an encounter with a "new" and scientifically valuable comet from the outer solar system, should one be discovered in time for CONTOUR to fly past it. CONTOUR's four scientific instruments will take detailed pictures and measure the chemical makeup of each comet's nucleus -- a chunk of ice and rock -- while analyzing the surrounding gas and dust. KSC-02pd1116

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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The Boeing Delta II rocket nears a vertical position as it is lifted from the gantry. The rocket is the launch vehicle for the CONTOUR spacecraft, scheduled to launch July 1. CONTOUR will provide the first detailed look into the heart of a comet -- the nucleus. The spacecraft will fly close to at least two comets, Encke and Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, taking pictures of the nucleus while analyzing the gas and dust that surround these rocky, icy building blocks of the solar system. KSC-02pd0790

STS-121 - LAUNCH - Public domain NASA photogrpaph

Orb3 Antares at Sunrise. NASA public domain image colelction.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, lights illuminate the mobile launcher (ML) at Launch Pad 39B after completing its 4.2-mile journey to the pad. The launcher rolled out aboard a crawler-transporter from next to Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building to the pad at about 9:15 a.m. EST with the launcher arriving at the pad at 6:29 p.m. Data on the ML will be collected from structural and functional engineering tests and used for the next phases of construction overseen by NASA’s 21st Century Ground Systems Program. The 355-foot-tall ML structure, which took about two years to construct, is being modified to support NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), the heavy-lift rocket that will launch astronauts farther into space than ever before. SLS will also create high-quality jobs here at home, and provide the cornerstone for America's future human space exploration efforts. Photo credit: NASA/Charisse Nahser KSC-2011-7820

STS-118 - LAUNCH - Public domain NASA photogrpaph

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The Boeing Delta II rocket with NASA's Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR) spacecraft attached is visible as the launch tower is rolled back. The launch is scheduled for 2:47 a.m. EDT July 3 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. Designed and built by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., the 2,138-pound (970-kilogram) spacecraft will be placed into an elliptical Earth orbit until Aug. 15, when it is scheduled to fire its main engine and enter a comet-chasing orbit around the sun. The mission's flexible four-year plan includes encounters with comets Encke (Nov. 12, 2003) and Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 (June 19, 2006), though it can add an encounter with a "new" and scientifically valuable comet from the outer solar system, should one be discovered in time for CONTOUR to fly past it. CONTOUR's four scientific instruments will take detailed pictures and measure the chemical makeup of each comet's nucleus -- a chunk of ice and rock -- while analyzing the surrounding gas and dust. KSC-02pd1116

description

Summary

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The Boeing Delta II rocket with NASA's Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR) spacecraft attached is visible as the launch tower is rolled back. The launch is scheduled for 2:47 a.m. EDT July 3 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. Designed and built by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., the 2,138-pound (970-kilogram) spacecraft will be placed into an elliptical Earth orbit until Aug. 15, when it is scheduled to fire its main engine and enter a comet-chasing orbit around the sun. The mission's flexible four-year plan includes encounters with comets Encke (Nov. 12, 2003) and Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 (June 19, 2006), though it can add an encounter with a "new" and scientifically valuable comet from the outer solar system, should one be discovered in time for CONTOUR to fly past it. CONTOUR's four scientific instruments will take detailed pictures and measure the chemical makeup of each comet's nucleus -- a chunk of ice and rock -- while analyzing the surrounding gas and dust.

date_range

Date

02/07/2002

place

Location

28.50671, -80.55424

create

Source

NASA

link

Link

https://images.nasa.gov/

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