Every launch vehicle is really several vehicles bolted end to end, each one discarded the moment its fuel runs dry. Pull the model apart to see what is hiding inside the fairing.
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Payload Bay
The cargo rides in the nose.
Above the second stage sits the payload fairing, a clamshell nose cone that protects the spacecraft through the thickest part of the atmosphere, then splits and falls away.
Separation
Then the rocket lets go.
Its work is done. What continues into orbit is the part that was never meant to come back down.
Advanced Composition Explorer
What survives is the satellite.
Solar arrays deploy, the instrument deck powers up, and the spacecraft begins the only part of the mission that ever mattered. Pull it apart to inspect the assembly.
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Interactive rocket is illustrative · Advanced Composition Explorer spacecraft model courtesy of NASA
Stage 1 of 4: Rocket
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MISSION LAB / STATIC BRIEF
A rocket carries the mission. A satellite continues it.
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01 / RocketStacked stages provide the force needed to leave Earth.
02 / Payload bayThe fairing protects the spacecraft through the atmosphere.
03 / SeparationThe launch vehicle releases the spacecraft into its operational path.
04 / SatelliteArrays deploy and the Advanced Composition Explorer begins its science mission.
