X-ray space telescope readied for launch

A space telescope that will search for black holes, supernovas and cosmic rays has been attached to an airplane in California that will launch it, NASA says.

The space agency's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, is now attached to its Pegasus XL rocket that has been strapped below NASA's L-1011 "Stargazer" aircraft for an airborne launch.

The aircraft, being prepared at Vandenberg Air Force Base, will fly to Kwajalein Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean for a launch scheduled for June 13, no earlier than 11:30 a.m. EDT, NASA said.

The plane will take off from Kwajalein and drop NuSTAR and its rocket over the ocean. The rocket will ignite and lift NuSTAR to its final orbit around Earth's equator.


Source: VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. / 05 June 2012 - UPI Science News (upi.com)

Photo: The Orbital Sciences Corporation Pegasus XL rocket with the NuSTAR spacecraft after attachment to the L-1011 carrier aircraft known as "Stargazer." (Photo NASA/Randy Beaudoin, VAFB)

(5.06.2012)