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The Dawn spacecraft and the Delta II rocket that will launch it depend on each other,
but take different paths to the launch pad.
Working in separate areas, teams of technicians prepare both the spacecraft
and the rocket at the same time.
That work started in April when the Dawn spacecraft arrived in Florida
at the Astrotech processing facility near NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
Technicians wearing protective coveralls removed the shipping container
and covers before inspecting the spacecraft.
The Delta II slated to loft the Dawn spacecraft toward the asteroid belt
started its own preparations at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
In a hangar a few miles from Launch Pad 17B,
workers tested the rocket's instruments and engines.
The rocket was taken to the launch pad in stages.
There, another team pointed the rocket toward space
and began attaching nine solid-fueled boosters to the first stage.
The boosters are crucial to making the rocket fast enough to break
Earth's gravitational pull on the Dawn spacecraft.
The second stage arrived separately and was lifted to the top of the Delta first stage
where it waited for the spacecraft.
While the rocket took its place, technicians at Astrotech ran more tests on the Dawn satellite
and bolted on a pair of solar arrays that give the probe a winged appearance.
They also readied a suite of sensors and cameras that will let Dawn study the Vesta
and Ceres asteroids up close for the first time.
The spacecraft was checked out and fueled with a xenon gas before it was attached
to the third stage engine, rolled out of the Astrotech hangar and carried to the launch pad.
A crane at the pad hoisted the spacecraft and its protective nosecone
beside the rocket before latching it in place.
It stands poised to leave Earth in a thundering jolt of smoke and flames
on NASA's latest mission of understanding.