On Wednesday, August 8th, NASA's Genesis spacecraft launched flawlessly atop a Delta 7326 rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Station at 12:13:40 p.m. EDT. Shortly after launch, the Genesis team reported that the spacecraft was in excellent health, with normal power and temperature levels.

The Delta 2 rocket lifts off with Genesis. Photo: Carleton Bailie for Boeing.

The Genesis spacecraft separated from the Delta's third stage at 64 minutes, 12 seconds into the mission, and then the solar arrays unfolded and pointed toward the Sun. The spacecraft's signal was successfully acquired by the NASA Deep Space Network complex at Goldstone, CA, 85 minutes after launch at 1:38 p.m. EST.

In September, Genesis will arrive at a point called L1 where the gravities of the Sun and Earth are balanced. It will open its collector arrays and begin to monitor and collect the solar wind, ions flowing from the outer layer of the Sun. The samples of solar wind it returns will help scientists understand how the solar system evolved.

Click here to watch a replay of the launch.

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