KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - On Launch Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the Mobile Service Tower is rolled back from the pad, revealing the MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging) spacecraft aboard a Delta II rocket. The nine solid booster rockets on this Delta model 7925-H provide it with heavy lift capability. MESSENGER is ready for liftoff on Aug. 2 at 2:16 a.m. EDT and is expected to enter Mercury orbit 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 August 1, 2004