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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- On the launch tower at Launch Complex 17-A, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, a technician makes a connection of the Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR) spacecraft (above) to the Boeing Delta II rocket (below). CONTOUR will provide the first detailed look into the heart of a comet -- the nucleus. Flying as close as 60 miles (100 kilometers) to at least two comets, the spacecraft will take the sharpest pictures yet of a nucleus while analyzing the gas and dust that surround these rocky, icy building blocks of the solar system. Launch of CONTOUR is scheduled for July 1, 2002