KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Creating a geometric design while viewed from behind its transporter, the second Solid Rocket Booster (SRB), at center, is ready for lifting up the mobile service tower on Pad 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. At right in the tower is the first SRB. The SRBs will be mated to the Boeing Delta II Heavy rocket for the Aug. 2 launch of the MESSENGER spacecraft 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