The first spacecraft designed to blast into a comet's icy heart is set to lift off in January 2005, mission managers announced on Tuesday.
NASA's Deep Impact mission is scheduled to launch from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station aboard a Delta II rocket sometime between 12 and
28 January. After a six-month journey, a pair of spacecraft will study the ice-and-rock heart - or nucleus - of Comet 9P/Tempel 1, which orbits the
Sun between Mars and Jupiter.