Delta IV launches WGS-4

1/19/12 ~ 7:38 p.m.

With the shuttle grounded for good, a Delta IV rocket launches on the first US space mission of 2012, the first post-shuttle year. Onboard was the fourth Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS-4) military communications satellite, hitching a 22-story, 1.5 million pound-thrust ride into geosynchronous orbit. Below, a time-lapse over the Explorer, a full size shuttle mockup formerly located at the KSC Visitors Complex and now temporarily sitting by the KSC dock before transport by barge to Houston for display.