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MESSENGER Launch 2
A glow appears beneath the Boeing
Delta II rocket as it begins liftoff with its payload, the MESSENGER
spacecraft, on top. Liftoff occurred on August 3, 2004, at 2:15:56
a.m. EDT from Launch Pad 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry,
and Ranging) is on a seven-year, 4.9-billion-mile journey to
the planet Mercury. The spacecraft will fly by Earth, Venus and
Mercury several times, as well as circle the Sun 15 times,
to burn off energy before making its final approach to the inner
planet on March 18, 2011. MESSENGER was built for NASA by the
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel,
Md.
Credit: National Aeronautics
and Space Administration or NASA
