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At 1:58 p.m. June 10, 2003 a Boeing Delta 2 rocket launched the
Mars Exploration Rover #1 (MER_1) spacecraft to mars at
~2:36 p.m. the Delta rocket upper stage separated
successfully placing MER-1 on its way to Mars! Thunderstorms
have kept MER-1 on the ground since Sunday. The Mars team is thrilled
with the success today. The second Rover is scheduled to launch on June
25th 2003. I took this picture from my office window!!!
 June
10, 2003 the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) was removed from its shipping
container and placed into its rotation dolly for launch processing in the KSC
Space Station Processing Facility. This very valuable module is the pride of
Japan. It is exciting after all the planning to have this module here. It will
be even much more exciting the day we launch it to space!
In
this picture the JEM is suspended by the cranes, and the Italian module
"Node-2" is in the lower right side of the picture. Node-2 arrived in
the United States last week. In this picture the JEM was being transitioned from
its shipping container to its rotation stand, allowing the unique picture of
these elements close together. The next time these
modules will be physically close to each other is when the JEM is docked to
Node-2 in outer space! How exciting that in our life time the largest
International peaceful project is underway!
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