Space Weather Satellite Blasts Off...03/27/00
NASA

NASA’s newest space weather probe lifted off March 25 from the Western Range at Vandenberg AFB, CA at 12:34 p.m. PST. The "Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration" (IMAGE) spacecraft separated from the Delta II third stage about 56 minutes after launch and is now in an elliptical orbit, ranging from 1,000 kilometers to 45,871 kilometers above Earth.

"The skies cleared, then our hearts lifted with the IMAGE spacecraft; on time, on budget, on the start of a new era in space physics at the Earth," said onlooker Dennis Gallagher, a plasma physicist from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, who attended the launch along with other members of the IMAGE science team.

Full Story: http://science.msfc.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast27mar_1m.htm