By Don Cohen NuSTAR, the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array,
contains the first focusing telescopes designed to look at high-
energy X-ray radiation. It is expected to contribute to a better
understanding of collapsing stars and black holes. Because
NuSTAR is designed to function in an equatorial orbit, it
launched on a Pegasus XL rocket from a point south of Kwajalein
Atoll, in the Marshall Islands, on June 13, 2012. Built by
Orbital Sciences Corporation, the Pegasus is carried to
approximately 39,000 ft. by an L-1011 aircraft. Released at that
altitude, the three-stage, winged rocket ignites its first-stage
motor to continue its journey to orbit. The June launch came
almost three months after a planned early March launch date. The
story of that delay--why it happened and what both NASA and
Orbital Sciences learned from the experience--offers insight
into how NASA deals with technical risks and into the agency's
developing relationships with commercial providers of launch
vehicles and spacecraft now and in