CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., March 10 (UPI) -- The U.S. space agency's Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, or GLAST, was undergoing payload processing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the space telescope -- a collaborative mission with France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Sweden -- was targeted for an 11:45 a.m. EDT launch on May 16.
NASA said GLAST is designed to explore the most extreme environments in the universe, and answer questions about supermassive black hole systems, pulsars and the origin of cosmic rays. It also will study the mystery of powerful explosions known as gamma-ray bursts.
The rocket that will launch GLAST is a Delta II 7920-H, a heavier-lift model of the standard Delta II that uses larger solid rocket boosters. The first stage is to be erected on the space center's Pad 17-B next week.
During the week of March 24 nine strap-on solid rocket boosters will attached, NASA said. The second stage, which burns hypergolic propellants, will be hoisted atop the first stage in late March.
