WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

The second stage of the Delta II Heavy rocket is lifted up the mobile service tower on Launch Complex 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for mating with the first stage (in the background) with its nine solid rocket boosters. The rocket will launch the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), currently scheduled for mid-August. SIRTF consists of three cryogenically cooled science instruments and an 0.85-meter telescope, and is one of NASA's largest infrared telescopes to be launched. SIRTF will obtain images and spectra by detecting the infrared energy, or heat, radiated by objects in space. Most of this infrared radiation is blocked by the Earth's atmosphere and cannot be observed from the ground.