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\h        Music.

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\h        On Dec. 14, 2009, A United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket carried NASA's Wide-field     
    Infrared Survey Explorer,

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\h        or WISE, space telescope into a high polar orbit.

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\h        WISE lifted off from Space Launch     
    Complex-2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California

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\h        beginning its 10-month mission to map the entire sky in the infrared.

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\h        Preparations for launch started earlier in the year when WISE's builder, Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., in Boulder, Co.,

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\h        shipped the spacecraft to the Astrotech payload processing facility at Vandenberg.

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\h        During the months of August, September and October the spacecraft was uncanned,

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\h        uncovered and moved to a clean room for testing, weighing and balancing.

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\h        Meanwhile, at Space Launch Complex-2, build-up of the Delta II began on Oct. 19 with the hoisting of the first stage onto

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\h        the launcher platform, shortly followed by the interstage section.

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\h        Once the first and interstage sections were secured, workers attached the three solid rocket

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\h        boosters around the base and then lifted the second stage section into position.

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\h        By the end of October, the rocket was complete and testing began on its Tracking and Data Relay Satellite transmitter.

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\h        A demanding workload followed in     
    November as technicians tested the rocket's propellant and guidance control systems,

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\h        in addition to performing first stage leak checks.

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\h        At Astrotech, work continued with loading of     
    the cryogenic hydrogen that will keep the

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\h        spacecraft's infrared telescope super-cold during its months of observations.

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\h        After one final week of testing, technicians gingerly lowered a transportation canister over WISE for its move to the launch pad.

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\h        Then, the 1,460-pound spacecraft was lifted atop the Delta II rocket.

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\h        By the end of the month, an integrated     
    electrical test was conducted to ensure the

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\h        two crafts communicated with each other and with mission control.

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\h        In a clean room environment, the spacecraft was carefully encased in its protective shell, called a fairing.

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\h        The two-part fairing protects the spacecraft during the harsh environment of liftoff, and fell away once it reached orbit.

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\h        Technicians at the launch pad continued mechanical, electrical and avionics system checkouts of the rocket,

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\h        while cooling of the spacecraft's cryogenic systems continued until liftoff.