KSC-2012-1118

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Orbital Sciences Corp. engineers oversee the remating of stages 2 and 3 of the Pegasus rocket in processing facility 1555 at Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) in California. The stages were remated after some RF electrical cabling was reinstalled. The rocket is being prepared to launch NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) into space. After the rocket and spacecraft are processed at Vandenberg, they will be flown on the Orbital Sciences' L-1011 carrier aircraft to the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site at the Pacific Ocean's Kwajalein Atoll for launch, targeted for no earlier than March 14. The high-energy x-ray telescope will conduct a census for black holes, map radioactive material in young supernovae remnants, and study the origins of cosmic rays and the extreme physics around collapsed stars. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/nustar. Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin, VAFB