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The
Dawn spacecraft is NASA's mission into the heart of the asteroid belt,
with a launch period opening on 30th June.
This latest spacecraft is set to be launched on
an eight-year, 3.2-billion-mile journey into the heart of the
asteroid belt.
This
spacecraft will employ ion propulsion to explore two of the asteroid
belt's most intriguing and dissimilar occupants: asteroid Vesta and the
dwarf planet Ceres. Right now technicians are starting to install
the spacecraft's batteries, checking out the control thrusters and
testing the spacecraft's instruments. In late April, the large
solar arrays will be attached and then deployed for testing. In
early May a compatibility test will be performed with the Deep Space
Network which will be used for tracking and communications. Dawn
will then be loaded with fuel to be used for spacecraft control during
the mission. Finally, in mid-May, the spacecraft will undergo
spin-balance testing and then mated to the upper stage booster. It
will be mated to the Delta II launch vehicle on June 19th.
The
rocket that will launch Dawn is a Delta II 7925-H manufactured by the
United Launch Alliance; it is a heavier-lift model of the standard Delta
II, and uses larger solid rocket boosters. The NASA Launch
Services Programme at
Kennedy
Space
Centre and the United Launch Alliance are responsible for the launch of
the Delta II.
The
Dawn mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by JPL, The
University
of
California Los Angeles
is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Other scientific
partners include Los Alamos National Laboratory,
New Mexico
;
German Aerospace Center
,
Berlin
; Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research,
Katlenburg
,
Germany
; and Italian National Institute of Astrophysics,
Palermo
. Orbital Sciences Corporation of
Dulles
,
Va.
, designed and built the Dawn spacecraft.
Additional
information about Dawn is online at:
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov
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