Let’s do a bit of gloating about the United Launch Alliance facility off Alabama 20 West and its latest accomplishment.

Thursday, the Delta II rocket made at our ULA plant sent a NASA spacecraft on a scientific journey that will take years and billions of miles to complete.

Come August 2011 and February 2015, the Dawn spacecraft should be making worldwide news as it reaches the little known but massive asteroid Vesta and the obscure tiny planet Ceres. Scientists believe they are among some of the oldest formations in the solar system.

And when those dates roll around, we will proudly remind the world that the rocket that propelled Dawn on its journey came from Decatur. Most of us, of course, will have had nothing to do with the building of the rocket or its launch, but we will still be proud because the Boeing/ Lockheed project makes us unique.

ULA is a joint venture of the rocket divisions of Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp.

In the intervening years before Vesta and Ceres give up their secrets, more Decatur-made Delta and Atlas rockets will help tame the universe, too.

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