Dawn breaks over Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to find NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory awaiting launch atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. This will be the 100th launch of a commercial Atlas/Centaur rocket.
Dawn breaks over Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to find NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory awaiting launch atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.
This will be the 100th launch of a commercial Atlas/Centaur rocket. The observatory, known as SDO, is the first mission in NASA’s Living With a Star Program and is designed to study the causes of solar variability and its impacts on Earth.
Image credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller
Feb. 10, 2010