X-ray space telescope readied for launch

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif., June 5 (UPI) -- 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.

NuSTAR will use high-energy X-rays to conduct a census of black holes, map radioactive material in young supernova remnants, and study the origins of cosmic rays and extreme physics around collapsed stars.

The unmanned mission is being led by the California Institute of Technology and managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, both located in Pasadena, Calif.