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cruise toward the most massive space rock in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter -- a voyage that will take nearly three years.
• Firing its ion propulsion thrusters, Dawn had been slowly spiraling away from Vesta for more than a month until it was to pop free from its gravitational grip. Since its antenna was pointed away from Earth during this last maneuver, engineers would not know until Wednesday how it went.
• The departure was considered ho-hum compared with other recent missions -- think Curiosity's white-knuckle "seven minutes of terror" dive into Mars' atmosphere.
• "It's not a sudden event. There's no whiplash-inducing maneuver. There's no tension, no anxiety," said chief engineer Marc Rayman of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the $466 million mission. "It's all very gentle and very graceful."
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• EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -- Eli Manning is no longer living in the shadow of his big brother. Far from it.
• The New York Giants quarterback enters the kickoff to the NFL season against the Dallas Cowboys on Wednesday night as a two-time Super Bowl MVP. He's now unquestionably among the league's elite after leading Tom Coughlin's team to two titles in five seasons, and a third title is a distinct possibility with the 31-year-old seemingly getting better coming off a career season.
• What's even more impressive is Eli is still Eli. He's hard-working, laid-back and looking for nothing more than doing it better than the year before.
• "Each year you try to improve and get better," Manning said during training camp. "There's definitely room for improvement. There's no question about it. Most of the things I'm working on are: decision making, eliminating turnovers, and being more accurate. Just continuing to try and work on my skills. Making sure you don't have any missed opportunities. That when guys are open, I'm hitting them."
• Former Giants center Shaun O'Hara said most people don't realize how hard Manning works. He usually is one of the first players at the team's headquarters in the morning and stays as long as anyone.
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