After 48 years in service, the British Skylark rocket motor begins its final mission on Monday May 2, 2005 launching the 12.8-meter (42.2-foot) sounding rocket Maser 10 into space from Swedish Space Corporation SSC's launching facility Esrange in Kiruna nothern Sweden. The first launch of a Skylark was made in 1957 and it has been used 96 times for launching sounding rockets from the pad at Esrange and 440 times in total. Maser 10 is part of the Maser sounding rocket program for research in microgravity _ the state of near-weightlessness experienced inside a falling object. (AP Photo/Paul Whitfield)
