Launch Images

GravityBKSC9 The Boeing Delta 2 rocket is fueled up during the countdown on April 19. The first launch attempt was scrubbed at three minutes before liftoff. Officials ruled there wasn't sufficient time to ensure the correct high-altitude wind data had been loaded into the rocket's guidance computer. Picture taken by photographer Bill Hartenstein.
GravityB10 The Delta II rocket lifts off the launch pad. Picture taken by photographer Bill Hartenstein.
GravityBKSC7 The Boeing Delta 2 rocket ignites at 1657:24 GMT. Picture taken by photographer Bill Hartenstein.
burns View of the Delta II rocket and payload lifting off of the launch pad, taken by photographer Thom Baur from the Boeing Corporation.
GravityBKSC3 View of the rocket lifting off, taken from the press viewing site 3.3 miles away from the launch pad. Picture taken by photographer Bill Hartenstein.
GravityBKSC1 The vehicle maneuvers to the proper southward heading for the trek to polar orbit. Picture taken by photographer Bill Hartenstein.
burns2 The rocket rising up into the air, followed by a thick vapor trail. Photograph taken by Jim Burns, a member of the Stanford GP-B team at Vandenburg AFB.
GravityBKSC4 View of the rocket's vapor trail from several miles away. Picture taken by photographer Bill Hartenstein.
GravityBKSC6 The Delta II rocket arches away into the sky, high over Vandenburg air force base. Picture taken by photographer Bill Hartenstein.
panorama A digitally assembled panorama of the Delta II's contrail. Original photos taken by Marian Chuang, a systems engineer at Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space Corporation.
tplus_55 The scorched launch platform surrounded by lifting smoke, at T+plus 55 seconds. Picture taken by photographer Bill Hartenstein.
farout Shot of the rocket's vapor trail high above the Santa Barbara coastline. Image was sent to us by the photographer, John Dickson of SantaBarbara.com.
inorbi2t View of the spacecraft separating from the second stage rocket, in space. This image was extracted from a NASA KSC's launch video.
inorbit View of the spacecraft drifting away from the second stage rocket. The solar panels have been fully deployed and the earth is visible to the right. The image was extracted from a NASA KSC's launch video.
sv_orbit2 A drawing of the GP-B spacecraft in orbit. This was part of an animation created by Adam Jeziak and Aaron Pozzer, under the leadership of Norbert Bartel at York University in Toronto.

Pre-Launch Images

Taken by Russ Underwood of Lockheed Martin Corporation, this photo shows the GP-B space vehicle being encapsulated in the fairing, inside the Mobile Service Tower.
The official pre-launch Gravity Probe B mission and science briefing was held on Friday, April 2, 2004 at 1:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The participants in the briefing (pictured from left to right in the photo) were:

  • Anne Kinney, Director of Astronomy/Physics Division, NASA Headquarters
  • Rex Geveden, Program Manager, GP-B and Deputy Director, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
  • Francis Everitt, GP-B Principal Investigator at Stanford University, Stanford, California
  • Bradford Parkinson, GP-B Co-Principal Investigator at Stanford University, Stanford California
  • Kip Thorne, Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California
    night_before Just after midnight Sunday (Monday morning), the Mobile Service Tower (MST) surrounding the GP-B launch vehicle and payload was rolled back to reveal the long-awaited sight of the rocket on the launch pad, ready for liftoff. Photograph taken by Jim Burns of the Stanford GP-B team at Vandenburg AFB
    postponed.jpg The mobile service tower is moved back around the Delta 2 rocket during the 24-hour postponement on April 19. Picture taken by photographer Bill Hartenstein.