The Boeing Delta II rocket lifts off Launch Complex 17 A carrying the Microwave Anisotropy Probe spacecraft.

Wrapped in billows of smoke and steam, the Boeing Delta II rocket lifts off Launch Complex 17-A, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, carrying the Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) spacecraft. The successful launch occurred at 3:46:46 p.m. EDT. The launch will place MAP into a lunar-assisted trajectory to the Sun-Earth for a 27-month mission. The probe will measure small fluctuations in the temperature of the cosmic microwave background radiation to an accuracy of one millionth of a degree. These measurements should reveal the size, matter content, age, geometry and fate of the universe. They will also reveal the primordial structure that grew to form galaxies and will test ideas about the origins of these primordial structures. The MAP instrument will be continuously shaded from the Sun, Earth, and Moon by the spacecraft. The probe is a product of Goddard Space Flight Center in partnership with Princeton University