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National Aeronautics and Space Administration John F. Kennedy Space Center Kennedy Space Center, Florida 32899 FOR RELEASE: 06/30/2001 PHOTO NO: KSC-01PP-1235 |
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| No copyright protection is asserted for this photograph. If a recognizable person appears in this photograph, use for commercial purposes may infringe a right of privacy or publicity. It may not be used to state or imply the endorsement by NASA employees of a commercial product, process or service, or used in any other manner that might mislead. Accordingly, it is requested that if this photograph is used in advertising and other commercial promotion, layout and copy be submitted to NASA prior to release. | |
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PHOTO CREDIT:
NASA or National Aeronautics and Space Administration
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| KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. -- The morning sky is nearly clear over Launch Complex 17-A, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and the waiting Boeing/Delta II rocket. The Atlantic Ocean can be seen on the horizon. Topping the rocket is the payload, the Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) spacecraft. Launch is scheduled at 3:46 p.m. EDT June 30. The launch will place MAP into a lunar-assisted trajectory to the Sun-Earth for a 27-month mission. The probe will measure small fluctuations in the temperature of the cosmic microwave background radiation to an accuracy of one millionth of a degree. These measurements should reveal the size, matter content, age, geometry and fate of the universe. They will also reveal the primordial structure that grew to form galaxies and will test ideas about the origins of these primordial structures. The MAP instrument will be continuously shaded from the Sun, Earth, and Moon by the spacecraft. The probe is a product of Goddard Space Flight Center in partnership with Princeton University | |
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