* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

DELTA 2 Rocket body re-entry

Blobrana · L

A DELTA 2 Rocket body, that was launched on the 27th September, 2007, from Cape Canaveral, on the Dawn spacecraft mission, is predicted to re-enter the Earths atmosphere on the 17th September, 2009, @ 22:24 GMT ± 48 hours.

TLE Data

DELTA 2 RB
1 32251U 07043C   09256.89264191 +.03156736 -98958-5 +37670-3 0 08125
2 32251 026.5482 105.8417 0264086 269.4936 087.5478 15.83477929080870

Period:         91.04 min
Inclination:                 26.55°
Apogee:       508 km
Perigee:       143 km
Revolution Number:    8153
Predicted Location:    11.9° S, 77.6° E

Blobrana · L

DELTA 2 Rocket booster re-entry

Blobrana · L

A 8 metre long DELTA 2 Rocket booster, that was launched on the 27th September, 2007, from Cape Canaveral, on the Dawn spacecraft mission, is predicted to re-enter the Earths atmosphere on the 13th September, 2009.

TLE Data

 DELTA 2 RB
1 32251U 07043C   09244.93002940 +.02093919 -78484-5 +56173-3 0 07817
2 32251 026.5535 192.0134 0500324 123.6597 241.0482 15.24288121079010

Period:       94.67 min
Inclination: 26.56°
Perigee:     148 km
Apogee:     857 km

-- Edited by Blobrana on Wednesday 2nd of September 2009 11:40:29 PM

Blobrana · L

RE: Dawn spacecraft

Blobrana · L

Dawn's mission continues to go very well, as the spacecraft nears the end of the longest coasting period of its astronomical journey. The deep-space member of the team has completed more special activities under the helpful guidance of the terrestrial contingent.
The previous log described the installation of software in the spacecraft's main computer. (Known as flight software 8.0, this name was chosen as part of Dawn's new outreach effort to increase public awareness of the number 8.

Read more

Blobrana · L

The upgraded Dawn spacecraft is now travelling in a new direction in its orbit around the Sun. The mission continues to go smoothly during this long coasting period, scheduled to conclude in June, when powered flight with the ion propulsion system will resume.
Read more

Blobrana · L

Dawn continues to coast quietly and calmly in its orbit around the Sun, keeping its main antenna pointed to faraway Earth. The mission control team has given the spacecraft relatively few assignments in recent weeks, providing time to prepare for a busier future. To ensure the distant craft remains healthy and safe, operators transmitted instructions for conducting routine maintenance, activities that are familiar to the probe now that it has been on its deep-space journey for more than 1.5 years.

Source

Blobrana · L

The Dawn spacecraft has successfully made a gravity-assist manoeuvre around Mars, passing just 341 miles above the planet's surface. The flyby slung the spacecraft towards its targets of Vesta and Ceres, which the spaceprobe will encounter at the start of 2011.

Blobrana · L

Launched in September of 2007, and propelled by any one of a trio of hyper-efficient ion engines, NASA's Dawn spacecraft passed the orbit of Mars last summer. At that time, the asteroid belt (where Dawn's two targets, asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres reside), had never been closer. In early July the spacecraft began to lose altitude, falling back towards the inner solar system. Then on October 31, 2008, after 270 days of almost continuous thrusting, the ion drive turned off.

"Not only are our thrusters off and we are dropping in altitude, we are plunging toward Mars. And everybody here on Dawn could not be happier" - Marc Rayman, the Dawn project's chief engineer from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

The team's joy at plummeting towards a planet named for the Roman god of war is not unfounded. Mars, the final stop for many a NASA spacecraft, was always an important, and weighty, waypoint for the Dawn mission. It all has to do with one of the heavy subjects of rocket science, gravity assists.

Read more