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As of this writing, NASA's MAP (Microwave Anisotropy Probe) satellite was scheduled for launch at the end of June. Frorn its quasi-stable perch at the Lagrange point L2, a million miles antisunward from Earth, MAP should be able to measure the CMB power spectrum with unprecedented sensitivity and precision.

Do you know if this instrument has been launched yet, and when it is scheduled to start producing useful data?

Has Vegas started running betting pools on the outcome of such experiments:

"Inflationary Cosmology is running 7-to-2, while straight vanilla Big Bang is lagging at 9-to-1, and Steady-State brings up the rear as the longshot of the day at 250-to-1."

Now there's a sport that would require some brains to be a truly knowledgeable handicapper!

Steady-State brings up the rear as the longshot of the day at 250-to-1."

You missed the really long shot of a billion-to-one of a 6000 year old universe with no big bang. :)

Do you know if this instrument has been launched yet, and when it is scheduled to start producing useful data?

Launched successfully and should reach L2 and start data collecting at the end of the month. It'll take nine months to get a complete full sky survey. MAP will be real good for temperature sensitivity, but only mediocre when compared to Maxima and Boomerang for angular resolution.