GRAVITY PROBE B - A LONG TIME IN THE MAKING - LRK -

Gravity Probe B: "LAUNCH UPDATE & HIGHLIGHTS FOR 20 APRIL 2004:
GRAVITY PROBE B LAUNCHED SUCCESSFULLY TODAY!

At 9:57:24 AM PDT today, the Gravity Probe B spacecraft was successfully launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in South-central California. The countdown went smoothly, and at the moment of launch, a packed auditorium here at Stanford University broke into cheers and applause. The launch is proceeding perfectly,exceeding all of our expectations. The initial visual images from the various tracking stations were heart-warming and beautiful to behold--surpassed perhaps only by the extraordinary images from the two cameras on-board the second stage, which showed the separation of the spacecraft from the launch vehicle more than 300 miles above the Earth."
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