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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Chuck Demming, with Northrop Grumman, works the console responsible for operation of the C-band, 3 megawatt radar and 50-foot dish antenna recently installed on north Kennedy Space Center. The radar is is one of the largest of its kind in the world, providing higher definition imagery than has ever been available before. Working in concert with two new NASA-owned X-band radars mounted on the solid rocket booster retrieval ships, tracking the space shuttle and expendable launch vehicles with this new capability will provide more detail than NASA has ever observed by radar before. The first use of this C-band radar will be for the launch of the Atlas V rocket sending the New Horizons probe toward Pluto. The radar is operated under a NASA contract with the U.S. Navy, who owns the radar. Photo credit: NASA/George Shelton/Demitrius Gerondidakas

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Chuck Demming, with Northrop Grumman, works the console responsible for operation of the C-band, 3 megawatt radar and 50-foot dish antenna recently installed on north Kennedy Space Center. The radar is is one of the largest of its kind in the world, providing higher definition imagery than has ever been available before. Working in concert with two new NASA-owned X-band radars mounted on the solid rocket booster retrieval ships, tracking the space shuttle and expendable launch vehicles with this new capability will provide more detail than NASA has ever observed by radar before. The first use of this C-band radar will be for the launch of the Atlas V rocket sending the New Horizons probe toward Pluto. The radar is operated under a NASA contract with the U.S. Navy, who owns the radar. Photo credit: NASA/George Shelton/Demitrius Gerondidakas