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TOPIC: Dawn spacecraft


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RE: Dawn spacecraft
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Launch of NASA's Dawn spacecraft has been postponed to Monday.
The  reschedule from Sunday to Monday was due to a need by  downrange tracking aircraft to have  telemetry relay support during the launch.
Fuelling of the second stage with the storable propellants has be rescheduled for tomorrow.
Weather forecasters predict  60 percent chance of acceptable launch conditions on Monday.  
The launch window  extends from 19:56 to 20:25 GMT, (3:56 to 4:25 p.m. EDT ).

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The launch of NASA's Dawn spacecraft aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket has been postponed 24 hours.
A lightning advisory Thursday morning precluded the start of the Delta II second stage fuelling as scheduled and did not clear in time for an afternoon attempt. Fuelling has been rescheduled for Friday, July 6.
Fuelling on Thursday was also delayed because the temperature of the second stage was too warm for the process to begin. The fairing temperature has been lowered so that oxidiser can be loaded Friday pending acceptable weather. Dawn's launch countdown dress rehearsal has been postponed until Friday. The launch window on Sunday, July 8, extends from 20:04 to 20:33 GMT (4:04 to 4:33 p.m. EDT). The chance of not meeting the launch weather criteria on Sunday is 60 percent. Required launch telemetry assets downrange will be in place to support the launch.
The Dawn mission science briefing, scheduled for Friday, will be held as planned at 1 p.m. The prelaunch news conference will begin at 1 p.m. Saturday, following the launch readiness review.

Source NASA

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NASA has decided to try to launch its Dawn mission to two large asteroids on Saturday, clearing earlier technical concerns that could have delayed lift-off until September or later.
Dawn is designed to orbit Vesta and Ceres, the two largest asteroids in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, in 2011 and 2015, respectively. It would be the first mission to orbit an asteroid in the belt, and the first spacecraft ever to orbit two targets.


Source

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The Dawn mission
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On July 7, a spacecraft will launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to embark on an eight-year mission led by UCLA professor of geophysics and space physics Christopher Russell to explore two planetary bodies between Mars and Jupiter.
This endeavour, known as the Dawn mission, is conducted in collaboration with NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, or JPL.

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RE: Dawn spacecraft
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STATUS REPORT: ELV-062707

Mission: Dawn
Location: Astrotech Space Operations Facility
Launch Pad: 17-B
Launch Vehicle: Delta II 7925-H
Launch Date: July 7, 2007
Launch Time: 4:09:31 - 4:36:22 p.m. EDT

In preparation for the upcoming July 3 Flight Readiness Review, the mission team is working to resolve several issues. These include engineering checkouts and analysis on solid rocket motor attachment points strength; cork insulation repair; battery replacement; and additional technical checkouts of the launch vehicle. Managers also are ensuring that all tracking elements will be in place to support the July 7-11 launch window.

The Dawn spacecraft arrived at Pad 17-B this morning and was hoisted atop the Delta II launch vehicle.
The Flight Program Verification, an integrated test to verify that the launch vehicle and the spacecraft are working together, is scheduled for June 29.
The fairing will be installed around the Dawn spacecraft atop the rocket on July 1.

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Dawn Mission Scientist Available to Media
Beginning on July 7, NASA will attempt to launch its Dawn spacecraft on a 4-year journey to our solar system's asteroid belt, where it will study dwarf planet Ceres and asteroid Vesta. University of Maryland scientist Lucy McFadden, a science team co-investigator and director of education and public outreach for the Dawn mission, is available to answer questions from reporters about the mission..

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Preparations are being made on Launch Pad 17-B at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida to launch the robotic Dawn interplanetary spacecraft on its eight-year, 3.2-billion-mile mission to the main asteroid belt.        
The Dawn space probe is scheduled to lift-off on July 7, 2007, with a launch window of opportunity between 4:09:31 and 4:36:22 p.m. EDT. The Dawn mission is the first NASA scientific mission to use the technically advanced ion propulsion, and the first mission to orbit two planetary bodies during a single mission.

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NASA has scheduled a news briefing at 2 p.m. EDT,  Tuesday, June 26, to preview the July 7 launch of the asteroid  belt-bound Dawn mission. The briefing will be held in the NASA  Headquarters auditorium, 300 E St., S.W., Washington. It will air  live on NASA Television and be streamed on the agency's Internet  homepage at www.nasa.gov.

Dawn will launch aboard a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida.  The mission will investigate the asteroid belt's largest objects, the  asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres.

Briefing participants are:
-- Jim Adams, deputy director, Planetary Science Division, NASA
   Headquarters, Washington
-- Keyur Patel, Dawn project manager, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
   (JPL), Pasadena, California
-- Chris Russell, Dawn principal investigator, University of
   California, Los Angeles
-- Carol Raymond, Dawn deputy principal investigator, JPL
-- Marc Rayman, Dawn project systems engineer, JPL



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STATUS REPORT: ELV-061807

Mission: Dawn
Location: Astrotech Space Operations Facility
Launch Pad: 17-B
Launch Vehicle: Delta II 7925-H
Launch Date: July 7, 2007
Launch Time: 4:09:31 - 4:36:22 p.m. EDT

Over the weekend, Dutch Space personnel completed the solar array repair on Dawn as planned and spacecraft processing continues on schedule.
Dawn will be mated to its associated upper-stage booster on Thursday and transported to Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for mating to the Delta II on June 27.
At Pad 17-B, the Delta II second stage was hoisted atop the first stage on June 15.

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Voyage to the Giant Asteroids
The asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter is like the solar system's cluttered old attic. The dusty, forgotten objects there are relics from a time long ago, each asteroid with its own story to tell about the solar system's beginnings.
These are stories planetary scientists want to hear. Much is still unknown about our solar system's distant past. We learn the basic story in school: A vast disc of gas and dust around the sun slowly gathered into larger and larger chunks, eventually forming the planets we know today. But how exactly did this happen, and why did it produce the kinds of worlds that it did, including a certain blue planet well-suited for life?

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