KSC-02pd2004

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- A Pegasus XL Expendable Launch Vehicle is prepared for its removal from the underside of an Orbital Sciences L-1011 aircraft as onlooking workers await their turns in the process. The aircraft, with the launch vehicle attached, arrived at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Skid Strip on Dec. 17. The Pegasus XL will undergo three flight simulations prior to its scheduled launch in late January 2003. It will carry NASA's Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) spacecraft into orbit. Built by Orbital Sciences Space Systems Group, SORCE will study and measure solar irradiance as a source of energy in the Earth's atmosphere with instruments built by the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).