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, at far left. 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