KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - On Pad 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the mobile service tower at left moves toward the Boeing Delta II Heavy rocket at right. The tower holds three out of nine Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) that will be mated to the Boeing Delta II 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