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BBC NEWS
A satellite that will put Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity to the test has been launched successfully into space.
The US space agency's $700m (£387m) probe launched on a Boeing Delta 2 rocket from Vandenberg Air Base in California at 1657 GMT.
The probe will orbit around the Earth for more than a year on its mission.
Gravity Probe B will test Einstein's ideas about space and time and how the Earth distorts them.
Mission controllers grounded the probe for 24 hours due to uncertainty about flight software during the countdown on Monday.
It will carry four near-perfect spheres in gyroscopes to help verify two key elements of Einstein's theory.
The probe will align itself with its "guide star" IM Pegasi, so that the spin axes of the spheres point to this star.
Over the course of the year their spin axes will be monitored for tiny changes that could be caused by the effects Einstein described.
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