* Astronomy

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RE: WISE Satellite

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NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, lifted off over the Pacific Ocean this morning on its way to map the entire sky in infrared light.
A Delta II rocket carrying the spacecraft launched at 6:09 a.m. PST (9:09 a.m. EST) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The rocket deposited WISE into a polar orbit 326 miles above Earth.
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WISE Launch

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A Nasa satellite designed to uncover hidden cosmic objects has blasted off from California.
The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (Wise) blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base on a Delta II rocket just after 1409 GMT.
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WISE READY, SET TO GO

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Launch WISE Spacecraft Delta II Rocket 14 Dec.09

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The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, lifted off atop a Delta 2 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 6:09 a.m. PT (9:09 a.m. ET) on Monday.
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NASA TV - WISE Launch

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Delta II-7320 *WISE* Launch from Vandenberg

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WISE Launched

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A Delta 2 rocket with NASA's WISE telescope was successfully launched at 14:09 GMT (6:09 a.m. local time).

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L minus 8 hours

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By using only 62 pixels to measure the heavens, that satellite was a dim torch compared to WISE. Each of WISE's four detectors will scan space with 1 million pixels.
The heart of the 2.75-metre-high craft is a 40.6-centimetre diameter telescope housed in frozen hydrogen called a ''cryostat''. This is designed to keep the instruments so cold - as low as negative 265 degrees - that the four detectors will not accidentally pick up heat from the mission's own electronics.
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