Cape Canaveral, Florida, August 17, 2009--A white trail in the morning sky marks the path of the last Delta II rocket the U.S. Air Force will ever launch. The rocket successfully lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base on Monday carrying a NAVSTAR global positioning satellite.

For the past 20 years the Air Force has used Delta II rockets to carry GPS satellites into space. But the next-generation GPS orbiters are too large for the workhorse rockets, so the military is switching to bigger launch vehicles.