CAPE CANAVERAL, FL - AUGUST 25: A Boeing Delta II rocket carrying the NASA Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) lifts off the launch pad at complex 17B August 25, 2003 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The SIRTF telescope is the final piece of NASA's Great Observatories Program which includes the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-Ray and Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. SIRTF will be used to study the early history of the universe, as astronomers will now be able to see distant objects hidden by gas and dust that cannot be seen with visible light telescopes, when star formation was a far more frequent occurence.