Public Use Permitted. Credit/Source: NASA. For more information <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/highlights/index.html" rel="nofollow">Visit NASA's Multimedia Gallery</a> You may wish to consult NASA's <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html" rel="nofollow">image use guidelines</a>. If you plan to use an image and especially if you are considering any commercial usage, you should be aware that some restrictions may apply. _____________

NOTE: In most cases, NASA does not assert copyright protection for its images, but proper attribution may be required. This may be to NASA or various agencies and individuals that may work on any number of projects with NASA. Please DO NOT ATTRIBUTE TO PINGNEWS. You may say found via pingnews but pingnews is neither the creator nor the owner of these materials. _________________

Additional information from source:

Dawn Begins Its Journey

Nearly enveloped by the smoke after ignition, the Delta II rocket carrying NASA's Dawn spacecraft rises from the launch pad to begin its 1.7-billion-mile journey through the inner solar system to study a pair of asteroids. Dawn, the ninth mission in NASA's Discovery Program, will be the first spacecraft to orbit two planetary bodies, asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres, during a single mission. Vesta and Ceres lie in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It is also NASA's first purely scientific mission powered by three solar electric ion propulsion engines.