KSC-2009-6538

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - At the Astrotech payload processing facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, spacecraft technicians lower an environmental covering toward NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, to protect it from contamination during its move to Space Launch Complex 2. WISE will survey the entire sky at infrared wavelengths, creating a cosmic clearinghouse of hundreds of millions of objects which will be catalogued and provide a vast storehouse of knowledge about the solar system, the Milky Way, and the universe. Launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket is scheduled for Dec. 9. For additional information, visit http:__www.nasa.gov_wise. Photo credit: NASA