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\h        Narrator: Welcome to Kennedy NOW! A look at some of the recent accomplishments

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\h        and changes under way at America's premiere spaceport.

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\h        NASA Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy, is working toward the summer launch of

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\h        the agency's newest space-based observatory.

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\h        Called IRIS, the 7-foot-long spacecraft will use a spectrograph to see the way energy

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\h        moves through the outer layers of the sun and into its shining corona.

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\h        In late April the spacecraft arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Calif.

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\h        where technicians and LSP managers began the final steps of processing it for launch in June.

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\h        IRIS will fly into space aboard a Pegasus rocket, which will be dropped from a converted

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\h        L-1011 airliner before igniting its engine to reach orbit.

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\h        Another target came into focus for Kennedy, and its unique work force, in April.

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\h        That's when NASA outlined an ambitious exploration mission aimed at sending astronauts

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\h        to sample an asteroid as it flies through space.

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\h        Dan Dumbacher, Deputy Assoc. Admin. for Exploration Systems Development: We are thrilled with this mission,

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\h        we look forward to it, it will be a challenge, it will be complex.

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\h        But NASA is up to the challenge and the team that you see represented here is ready and willing to take it on.

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\h        Narrator: The asteroid will be captured by a solar-electric-powered, un-crewed spacecraft and placed into a stable orbit.

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\h        A human crew flying aboard an Orion spacecraft launched from Kennedy will visit the asteroid.

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\h        They'll take samples from it that researchers will use to further their studies of the space rocks.

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\h        The Orion flight, launching on a Space Launch System super-booster now under development,

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\h        could take place as soon as 2021.

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\h        The Orion design will be tested next year during an un-crewed mission using a spacecraft

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\h        now being assembled inside Kennedy's Operations & Checkout Building.

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\h        Bob Cabana, Kennedy Space Center Director: We've made tremendous progress in our transition to the future.

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\h        Narrator: The flight test will send the Orion spacecraft about 3,600 miles above Earth,

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\h        or some 15 times higher than the International Space Station. From that height,

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\h        it will plunge into the atmosphere at more than 20,000 mph to test the spacecraft's heat shield.

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\h        While the mission is a demanding test of the spacecraft, it also will provide proof of