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.


