At the Astrotech payload processing facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, a transportation canister containing NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, is secured on the transporter which will move it to Space Launch Complex 2.
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 aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket is scheduled for Dec. 9. For additional information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/wise. Photo credit: NASA/Daniel Liberotti, VAFB