Delta II Launch with the THEMIS satellite payload from pad 17B C

At Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, clouds of smoke encompass the Delta II rocket with NASA's THEMIS spacecraft aboard as it blasts off Pad 17-B, in sight of the Atlantic Ocean, at 6:01 p.m. EST. THEMIS, an acronym for Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms, consists of five identical probes that will track violent, colorful eruptions near the North Pole.