A second stage is lifted at NASA's Space Launch Complex 2 (SLC-2) at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., for placement on a Delta II rocket The rocket will carry the ICESat and CHIPSat satellites into Earth orbits. The Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite, or ICESat, is a 661-pound satellite carrying the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) that will revolutionize our understanding of ice and its role in global climate change and how we protect and understand our home planet. It will help scientists determine if the global sea level is rising or falling. It will look at the ice sheets that blanket the Earth's poles to see if they are growing or shrinking. It will assist in developing an understanding of how changes in the Earth's atmosphere and climate effect polar ice masses and global sea level. The Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer, or CHIPSat, a suitcase-size 131-pound satellite, will provide invaluable information into the origin, physical processes and properties of the hot gas contained in the interstellar medium. This can provide important clues about the formation and evolution of galaxies since the interstellar medium literally contains the seeds of future stars. The Delta II launch is scheduled for Jan. 11, 2003, between 4:45 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. PST.
NASA
Taken on 24 October 2002
<ul><li><a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="https://images.nasa.gov/details/KSC-02pd2059">https://images.nasa.gov/details/KSC-02pd2059</a></li>
<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="https://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/#/Detail/22607">https://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/#/Detail/22607</a><sup class="noprint Inline-Template"><span style="white-space: nowrap;">[<span style="font-style:italic;"><span title="" class="plainlinks"><a class="external text" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Link_rot">dead link</a></span></span>]</span></sup></li>
<li><bdo lang="en" dir="ltr" title="archived on 14 January 2019 at the Wayback Machine"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190114015343/https://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/media/images//large/02pd2059.JPG">https://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/media/images//large/02pd2059.JPG on the Wayback Machine</a></bdo></li></ul>