Delta II ICESAT Second Stage Arrival

Inside NASA's Building 1555 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the United Launch Alliance Delta II second stage was lifted out of its shipping container and a crane is being used to lower it onto the base of a transporter. The second stage will be moved to the horizontal processing facility at Space Launch Complex-2. NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) will launch later this year on the final Delta II rocket. ICESat-2 will measure the height of a changing Earth, one laser pulse at a time, 10,000 laser pulses a second. The satellite will carry a single instrument, the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System. ICESat-2 will help scientists investigate why, and how much our planet's frozen and icy areas, called the cryosphere, is changing in a warming climate.