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Enveloped by the smoke after ignition, the Delta II rocket carrying NASA's Dawn spacecraft rises from the fire on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to begin its 1.7-billion-mile journey through the inner solar system to study the asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres. Vesta and Ceres lie in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It is also NASA's first scientific mission powered by electric ion propulsion engines. Very Star Wars ;-)

Credit: NASA/JPL