In the Astrotech payload processing facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, workers check the attachment of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, spacecraft to the 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. 10. Photo credit: NASA/Doug Kolkow, VAFB