KSC-2012-1559

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – Following the application of the mission decals, this camera view spans the Pegasus XL rocket inside the Orbital Sciences processing facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California from its aft end, at right, to NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, mated to its forward end, at left. After processing of the rocket and spacecraft are complete, they will be flown on Orbital's L-1011 carrier aircraft from Vandenberg to the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site on the Pacific Ocean’s Kwajalein Atoll for launch in March. The high-energy x-ray telescope will conduct a census of 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 http://www.nasa.gov/nustar. Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin, VAFB