NASA's NuSTAR spacecraft is prepared for joining with the Pegasus XL rocket will launch NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array NuSTAR into space.

Now inside a tilt-rotation fixture and covered in protective plastic, NASA's NuSTAR spacecraft is prepared for joining with the Pegasus XL rocket inside Orbital Sciences' processing facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The Orbital Sciences Pegasus will launch NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array NuSTAR into space. After the rocket and spacecraft are processed at Vandenberg, they will be flown on Orbital's L-1011 carrier aircraft to the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site at the Pacific Ocean’s Kwajalein Atoll for launch. The high-energy x-ray telescope will conduct a census for black holes, map radioactive material in young supernovae remnants, and study the origins of cosmic rays and the extreme physics around collapsed stars. For more information, visit science.nasa.gov/missions/nustar/. Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin, VAFB