From the ArcaMax Publishing, Science & Technology Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/technology/s-361712-764020
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (UPI) -- The U.S. space agency's Gamma-ray Large
Area Space Telescope, or GLAST, lifted off at 12:05 p.m. EDT Wednesday
and went into orbit around the Earth.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration satellite separated
from its Delta II launch rocket at 1:20 p.m. EDT and 12 minutes later
both of GLAST's solar arrays were deployed about 300 miles above the
Earth.
"The entire GLAST team is elated the observatory is now on-orbit and
all systems continue to operate as planned," said GLAST Program
Manager Kevin Grady of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in
Greenbelt, Md.
NASA's newest space telescope, launched from the Kennedy Space Center
in Florida, will begin transmitting initial instrument data within the
next month, officials said.
"After a 60-day checkout and initial calibration period, we'll begin
science operations," said Steve Ritz, GLAST project scientist. "GLAST
soon will be telling scientists about many new objects to study, and
this information will be available on the Internet for the world to
see."
The GLAST mission is an astrophysics and particle physics partnership,
developed with the U.S. Department of Energy, along with contributions
from academic institutions and partners in France, Germany, Italy,
Japan, Sweden and the United States.