Dawn
A four-year, 1.8 billion-mile flight to asteroid Vesta started with the rumble and roar of a Delta II rocket Sept. 27 that hurtled the Dawn spacecraft off a launch pad in Florida and into space.
Launch controllers at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station monitored a near-perfect countdown leading to launch, and then applauded as the rocket's three stages performed perfectly in dispatching Dawn on its way.
Dawn spread its solar panel “wings” after reaching orbit. It will depend on a modestly powered set of ion engines to maneuver itself around Earth and Mars on its way to Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres in the asteroid belt. It will closely study each body during a mission slated to end in 2015.
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/