On the launch tower at Launch Complex 17-A, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, technicians loosen the bolts on the container enclosing the Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR) spacecraft. CONTOUR will provide the first detailed look into the heart of a comet -- the nucleus. Flying as close as 60 miles (100 kilometers) to at least two comets, the spacecraft will take the sharpest pictures yet of a nucleus while analyzing the gas and dust that surround these rocky, icy building blocks of the solar system. Launch of CONTOUR aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket is scheduled for July 1, 2002
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