Delta 2-H launches NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope 6/11/08 ~ 12:05pm Homepage       Launch Photos A Boeing Delta 2-Heavy rocket, with slightly larger solid-rocket boosters than a regular Delta 2, launches NASA's Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST), later renamed the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, into orbit at 12:05pm EDT June 11. GLAST is a successor to the Compton Gamma-ray Observatory, the second of NASA's four Great Observatories which started with Hubble. Compton, launched on STS-37 in 1991, was deorbited in 2000. GLAST in the Astrotech cleanroom

From the Jetty Park pier, 2.9 miles away:

A shockwave forms at max-q:

A grass fire started by the launch:

Shortly before launch, liquid oxygen vents from the Delta 2: