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Forecast is good for Deep Impact launch

The Maryland-led Deep Impact mission is set for launch Wednesday afternoon from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and the forecast is good. Liftoff is scheduled for 1:47:08 p.m.

NASA is spending $311 million to send the spacecraft to rendezvous with Comet Tempel 1 on July 4, and drop an 820-pound copper slug in its path. The impact - at 23,000 mph - is likely to blast a crater the size of Yankee Stadium, enabling scientists on Earth to measure the physical and chemical properties of the interior ices. It's believed they hold clues to the conditions that prevailed in the early solar system, 4.5 billion years ago.

Here is NASA's Deep Impact Web page. Here's the University of Maryland's. Both have links to Webcasts of Wednesday's launch.

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About Frank Roylance
Frank Roylance is a reporter for The Baltimore Sun. He came to Baltimore from New Bedford, Mass. in 1980 to join the old Evening Sun. He moved to the morning Sun when the papers merged in 1992, and has spent most of his time since covering science, including astronomy and the weather. One of The Baltimore Sun's first online Web logs, the Weather Blog debuted in October 2004. In June 2006 Frank also began writing comments on local weather and stargazing for The Baltimore Sun's print Weather Page.
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