KSC-2009-4612

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – At NASA Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility, the SV-1 cargo of the STSS Demonstrator spacecraft moves out of the U.S. Air Force C-17. The cargo will be transferred to the Astrotech payload processing facility in Titusville, Fla. The spacecraft is a midcourse tracking technology demonstrator, part of an evolving ballistic missile defense system. STSS is capable of tracking objects after boost phase and provides trajectory information to other sensors. It will be launched by NASA for the Missile Defense Agency in late summer. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett (Approved for Public Release 09-MDA-4804 [4 Aug 09] )