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by NASA - digital version copyright - © Corbis. All Rights Reserved. - © NASA - digital version copyright/Science Faction/Corbis
Delta II Rocket Launching from Kennedy Space Center
A Delta II rocket carries the Dawn spacecraft in an arc over the Atlantic Ocean. Liftoff was at 7:34 a.m. EDT from Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Dawn is the ninth mission in NASA's Discovery Program. The spacecraft will be the first to orbit two planetary bodies, the asteroid Vesta and Ceres, during a single mission. It is also NASA's first purely scientific mission powered by three solar electric ion propulsion engines. Photo credit: NASA/George Shelton. --- Image by © NASA - digital version copyright/Science Faction/Corbis