04.10.2007
The Dawn spacecraft arrived at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, FL, at 9 a.m. EDT today. Dawn, NASA's mission into the heart of the asteroid belt, is at the facility for final processing and launch operations. Dawn's launch period opens June 30.
"Dawn only has two more trips to make," said project manager Keyur Patel of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. "One will be in mid-June when it makes the 15-mile journey from the processing facility to the launch pad. The second will be when Dawn
rises to begin its eight-year, 3.2-billion-mile odyssey into the heart of the asteroid belt."
The Dawn spacecraft will use ion propulsion to explore two of the asteroid belt's most intriguing and dissimilar occupants: asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres.
Now that Dawn has arrived at Astrotech near NASA's Kennedy Space Center, final prelaunch processing will begin. Technicians will install the spacecraft's batteries, check out the control thrusters and test the spacecraft's instruments. In late April, Dawn's 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 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. Dawn will then be mated to the upper stage booster and installed into a spacecraft transportation canister for the trip to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. This is currently scheduled for June 19, when it will be mated to the Delta II rocket at Pad 17-B. Click here for the full press release. Learn more about the Dawn mission at http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov
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