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Snow swirled and a biting wind sent temperatures plummeting to several degrees below zero as the Stardust 1.0 made its debut at a former military base in Maine.
Strapped to a trailer and pulled by a pick-up truck along a runway once used by B-52 bombers in the Cold War, it wasn t the most glamorous entrance for a rocket about to make history.
And it very nearly didn t as the subzero conditions played havoc with the electronics and clouds moved in.
But after several delays and as the Sunday afternoon light waned, Stardust finally lifted off, becoming the first commercial launch of a rocket powered by bio-derived fuel.