KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - A second Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) for the MESSENGER spacecraft launch is raised from its transporter at Pad 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, before being lifted up the mobile service tower. The SRB will be mated to the Boeing Delta II Heavy rocket, seen in the background, for the Aug. 2 launch to the planet Mercury. The spacecraft is expected to reach orbit around Mercury in March 2011. MESSENGER was built for NASA by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.
Location Kennedy Space Center, FL
Date July 1, 2004