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GRAIL

At Space Launch Complex 17B on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, spacecraft technicians monitor the movement of a section of the clamshell-shaped Delta payload fairing as it encloses NASA's twin Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft - a probe used to study Earth's Moon. The fairing protected the spacecraft from the impact of aerodynamic pressure and heating during ascent and was jettisoned once the spacecraft was outside the Earth's atmosphere.

 

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Credit: NASA/KSC

Image Number: PIA13951

Date: August 23, 2011

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Uploaded on August 23, 2025
Taken on August 23, 2011