The first stage of the Boeing Delta II rocket is lifted off its transporter on Pad 17-B Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The first stage of the Boeing Delta II rocket is lifted off its transporter on Pad 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The rocket will be moved into the mobile service tower. The Delta II is the launch vehicle for the MESSENGER spacecraft, scheduled to lift off Aug. 2, bound for Mercury. The spacecraft is expected to reach orbit around Mercury in March 2011. MESSENGER was built for NASA by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.