At Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California is lifted up the side of the mobile service tower.

At Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the interstage of the United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket for launch of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, is lifted up the side of the mobile service tower.

WISE will survey the entire sky at infrared wavelengths, creating a cosmic clearinghouse of hundreds of millions of objects which will be catalogued and provide a vast storehouse of knowledge about the solar system, the Milky Way, and the universe. Launch is scheduled for Dec. 7. For additional information, visit http://wise.ssl.berkeley.edu. Photo credit: NASA/Roy Allison, VAFB