KSC-2011-4450

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- In the Astrotech payload processing facility in Titusville, Fla., technicians prepare a solar panel for attachment to NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, or GRAIL. The United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket that will carry the twin GRAIL spacecraft into lunar orbit is fully stacked at NASA's Space Launch Complex 17B and launch is scheduled for Sept. 8. The GRAIL mission is a part of NASA's Discovery Program. GRAIL will fly twin spacecraft in tandem orbits around the moon for several months to measure its gravity field. The mission also will answer longstanding questions about Earth's moon and provide scientists a better understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed. For more information, visit http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/grail. Photo credit: NASA/Frank Michaux