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After arrival on Launch Complex 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the second stage of the Delta II Heavy rocket is prepared for lifting up the mobile service tower. It will be mated to the first stage of the rocket for launch of Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), currently scheduled for mid-August. SIRTF consists of three cryogenically cooled science instruments and an 0.85-meter telescope, and is one of NASA's largest infrared telescopes to be launched. SIRTF will obtain images and spectra by detecting the infrared energy, or heat, radiated by objects in space. Most of this infrared radiation is blocked by the Earth's atmosphere and cannot be observed from the ground.