KSC-2012-1376

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Inside Orbital Sciences' processing facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, a technician watches closely as NASA's NuSTAR spacecraft begins to rise from its test stand. The spacecraft will be rotated to horizontal for joining with the Pegasus XL rocket. The Orbital Sciences Pegasus will launch NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array NuSTAR into space. After the rocket and spacecraft are processed at Vandenberg, they will be flown on Orbital's L-1011 carrier aircraft to the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site at the Pacific Ocean’s Kwajalein Atoll for launch. 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 science.nasa.gov/missions/nustar/. Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin, VAFB