A Delta II rocket carrying the Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 12:05PM EDT on June 11, 2008. Once in orbit, the telescope will study black holes, the remnants of supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, neutron stars, and dark matter.
After the Delta II rocket's 75-minute flight, the telescope entered a circular low earth orbit, approximately 350 miles above the surface of our planet. After 60 days of preliminary testing, the telescope will become operational and begin studying the eternal night beyond Earth, searching for and examining some of the most distant and mysterious objects in the universe. The telescope does not operate like a conventional optical telescope, but instead detects high-energy gamma-rays emitted by black holes and other little understood astronomical phenomenae.
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