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NASA launches $2.5 billion rover to Red Planet
By Mike Wall

updated 11/26/2011 9:24:45 PM ET

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA has launched its next Mars rover, kicking off a long-awaited mission to investigate whether the Red Planet could ever have hosted microbial life.
The car-size Curiosity rover blasted off atop its Atlas 5 rocket at 10:02 a.m. ET Saturday, streaking into a cloudy sky above Cape Canaveral Air Force Station here. The huge robot's next stop is Mars, though the 354-million-mile (570-million-kilometer) journey will take eight and a half months......................>>>>..................>>>>...................http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45444246/ns/technology_and_science-space/#.TtI5dhw0i6Y