KSC-2011-7924

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – At NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Jose Perez-Morales (right), NASA launch pad project manager, and Larry Schultz, NASA mobile launcher project manager, outline the upgrades to Launch Pad 39B and the mobile launcher to support NASA's forthcoming Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket. Their audience is made up of media representatives taking the 21st Century Ground Systems tour. Other stops on the tour include the Vehicle Assembly Building, a crawler-transporter parked on the crawlerway, and the Launch Control Center's Firing Room 1. These facilities and equipment will be used to prepare and launch NASA's new Orion spacecraft. The tour was arranged as part of prelaunch media activities for the agency's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) launch. Liftoff of MSL aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is planned during a launch window which extends from 10:02 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. EST on Nov. 26. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/msl. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann