At Vandenberg Air Force Base's Astrotech processing facility in California technicians help guide NASA's Infrared Survey Explorer.

At Vandenberg Air Force Base's Astrotech processing facility in California, technicians help guide NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, spacecraft to the flight conical adapter and test stand. The satellite will survey the entire sky at infrared wavelengths, creating a cosmic clearinghouse of hundreds of millions of objects, which will be catalogued, providing a vast storehouse of knowledge about the solar system, the Milky Way, and the universe. Launch is scheduled no earlier than Dec. 7. Photo credit: NASA/Doug Kolkow