In the Mission Director’s Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, launch and mission managers and engineers monitor progress during a countdown rehearsal for the upcoming launch of a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket with the Joint Polar Satellite System-1, or JPSS-1, spacecraft. Built by Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colorado, JPSS is the first in a series four next-generation environmental satellites in a collaborative program between the NOAA and NASA.
Photo credit: NASA/Leif Heimbold