spacetoday.net: Delta launches Dawn on asteroid mission

Posted: Thu, Sep 27, 2007, 8:36 PM ET (0036 GMT)
Dawn spacecraft illustration (UCLA/W. Hartman)

A Delta 2 rocket launched NASA's Dawn spacecraft Thursday on a mission to two of the solar system's largest asteroids. The Delta 2 Heavy 7925H lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 7:34 am EDT (1134 GMT) Thursday, after a slight delay because of range issues. The Dawn spacecraft separated from the Delta 2's third stage 62 minutes after, after injecting the spacecraft onto an escape trajectory. After a Mars gravity assist in 2009, Dawn will arrive at the asteroid Vesta in September 2011, spending seven months there before departing for Ceres, arriving there in February 2015. The spacecraft will be the first to visit the two asteroids, and the first NASA mission to orbit two separate worlds beyond Earth in the solar system. Dawn carries a suite of scientific instruments and is propelled by an ion engine.