Workers maneuver the ropes tied to the second stage segment as it is being lowered to a horizontal position.

On Launch Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, workers maneuver the ropes tied to the second stage segment as it is being lowered to a horizontal position. It will be placed on a transporter and moved to the High-Pressure Test Facility for leak testing. The segment was destacked from the Delta II rocket in the mobile service tower. At the Boeing plant in Alabama, a leak was observed in the second-stage oxidizer tank for another Delta II that had been scheduled to launch in November; therefore, all identical tanks scheduled for launch in the near future are being checked. The second stage for the Delta II that will launch STEREO cannot be effectively tested while atop the first stage at Pad 17-B. STEREO stands for Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory and comprises two spacecraft. The STEREO mission is the first to take measurements of the sun and solar wind in 3-dimension. This new view will improve our understanding of space weather and its impact on the Earth. STEREO is expected to lift off in late August 2006. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann