The Boeing Delta II rocket with its MESSENGER spacecraft on top climbs free Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Wrapped in clouds of smoke, the Boeing Delta II rocket with its MESSENGER spacecraft on top climbs free as it lifts off on time at 2:15:56 a.m. EDT from Launch Pad 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. MESSENGER (Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging) is on a seven-year, 4.9-billion-mile journey to the planet Mercury. The spacecraft will fly by Earth, Venus and Mercury several times, as well as circling the sun 15 times, to burn off energy before making its final approach to the inner planet on March 18, 2011. MESSENGER was built for NASA by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.