* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Dawn spacecraft

Blobrana · L

NASA to Unveil Vesta Images at News Conference

NASA will host a news conference on Monday, Aug. 1, at 9 a.m. PDT (noon EDT), to discuss the Dawn spacecraft's successful orbit insertion around Vesta on July 15 and unveil the first full-frame images from Dawn's framing camera. The news conference will be held in the von Karman auditorium at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Dr., Pasadena, Calif.
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Blobrana · L

Vesta rock turns for Dawn probe

The giant asteroid Vesta is revealing more of itself to the US space agency's (Nasa) Dawn mission.
The probe has beamed back further images since entering into orbit around the 530km-wide rock on 17 July.
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Blobrana · L

What's Up for July 2011

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

This month you can learn about asteroids, and see Vesta, as the Dawn spacecraft closes in.

Blobrana · L

NASA's Dawn Spacecraft Enters Orbit Around Asteroid Vesta

NASA's Dawn spacecraft on Saturday became the first probe ever to enter orbit around an object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Dawn will study the asteroid, named Vesta, for a year before departing for a second destination, a dwarf planet named Ceres, in July 2012. Observations will provide unprecedented data to help scientists understand the earliest chapter of our solar system. The data also will help pave the way for future human space missions.
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Blobrana · L

Engineers expect the spacecraft to be captured into orbit at approximately 10 p.m. PDT Friday, July 15 (1 a.m. EDT Saturday, July 16). They expect to hear from the spacecraft and confirm that it performed as planned during a scheduled communications pass that starts at approximately 11:30 p.m. PDT on Saturday, July 16 (2:30 a.m. EDT Sunday, July 17). When Vesta captures Dawn into its orbit, engineers estimate there will be approximately 16,000 kilometres between them. At that point, the spacecraft and asteroid will be approximately 188 million kilometres from Earth.
Source

Blobrana · L

DAWN - VESTA SPICE 08/07 - 05/08

Blobrana · L

Dawn's Approach to Vesta

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/PSI and NASA/ESA/STScI/UMd

jumpjack · New

Anonymous wrote:
New ETA: 2011/07/16 05:00 GMT
Confirmation expected on 2011/07/16 06:30 GMT

I think the confirmation is expected for a day later, 2011/07/17 06:30 GMT

http://www.universetoday.com/87481/looming-larger-dawn-approaches-vesta-enters-orbit-july-15-16/

Date: Jul 15 08:05 2011

New ETA: 2011/07/16 05:00 GMT

Confirmation expected on 2011/07/16 06:30 GMT