Aura launched (finally)

Reuters reports that Aura, NASA's science satellite, has finally been launched.

Aura will fall into an orbit trailing another of NASA's Earth observation satellites, Aqua, which studies oceans and was launched in 2002. Four more U.S. and French satellites should be launched over the next several years and take their places between the Aqua and Aura, forming a flotilla of environmental monitors that NASA has dubbed the A-Train.

NASA has been trying to launch the satellite since Sunday but a variety of technical problems kept it on the pad. Thursday's launch was flawless, NASA said.

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