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2011 Launches

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Date: June 9 *
Mission: Aquarius
Launch Vehicle: United Launch Alliance Delta II 7320
Launch Site: Vandenberg Air Force Base - SLC 2
Description: The Aquarius mission will provide the first-ever global maps of salt concentrations in the ocean surface needed to understand heat transport and storage in the ocean.

Date: Aug. 5
Mission: Juno
Launch Vehicle: United Launch Alliance Atlas V
Launch Site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.
Launch Window: 12:10 p.m. - 1:40 p.m. EDT
Description: The solar-powered Juno spacecraft is to orbit Jupiter's poles 33 times to find out more about the gas giant's origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere.

Date: Sept. 8
Mission: GRAIL
Launch Vehicle: ULA Delta II Heavy
Launch Site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.
Launch Times: 8:35:52 a.m. and 9:14:35 a.m. EDT
Description: The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory mission's primary science objectives will be to determine the structure of the lunar interior from crust to core and to advance understanding of the thermal evolution of the moon.

Date: Oct. 25
Mission: NPP
Launch Vehicle: ULA Delta II
Launch Site: Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.
Launch Window: 2:47:35 a.m. - 2:57:35 a.m. PDT / 5:47:35 a.m. - 5:57:35 a.m. EDT
Description: The National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project (NPP) mission for NASA and NOAA is to measure Earth's atmospheric and sea surface temperatures, humidity sounding, land and ocean biological activity and cloud and aerosol properties.

Date: Nov. 25 *
Mission: Mars Science Laboratory
Launch Vehicle: United Launch Alliance Atlas V
Launch Site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
Launch Time: 10:21 a.m. EST
Description: The Mars Science Laboratory is a rover that will assess whether Mars ever was, or is still today, an environment able to support microbial life and to determine the planet's habitability.