Spacecraft uses a dead blow hammer to seat the clampband on the test payload attach fitting to complete the mating with the conical adapter.

At Vandenberg Air Force Base's Astrotech processing facility in California, a technician working on NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, spacecraft uses a dead blow hammer to seat the clampband on the test payload attach fitting to complete the mating with the conical adapter. 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