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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - A technician at Astrotech in Titusville, Fla., begins an illumination test on the Deep Impact spacecraft as a final check of performance. Launch aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket from Pad 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., is scheduled for Jan. 8. The Deep Impact mission is the first to explore a comet's interior by using a spacecraft to create a crater, allowing us to look deep inside. Dramatic images from both the flyby spacecraft and the impactor will be sent back to distant Earth as data in near-realtime. These first-ever views deep beneath a comet’s surface, and additional scientific measurements will provide clues to the formation of the solar system. Amateur astronomers will combine efforts with astronomers at larger telescopes to offer the public an earth-based look at this incredible July 2005 encounter with a comet.