COLLECTION NAME:
NASA Kennedy Center Media Archive Collection
Record
Description:
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- At Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Fla., workers check the fitting on the lower transportation canister segments in place around the upper stage booster beneath the Dawn spacecraft. The canister will protect the spacecraft and booster during transfer to Launch Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS). During its nearly decade-long mission, the Dawn mission will study the asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres, celestial bodies believed to have accreted early in the history of the solar system. To carry out its scientific mission, the Dawn spacecraft will carry a visible camera, a visible and infrared mapping spectrometer, and a gamma ray and neutron spectrometer, whose data will be used in combination to characterize these bodies. In addition to the three instruments, radiometric and optical navigation data will provide data relating to the gravity field and thus bulk properties and internal structure of the two bodies. Data returned from the Dawn spacecraft could provide opportunities for significant breakthroughs in our knowledge of how the solar system formed. Launch via a Delta II rocket is scheduled in a window from 7:25 to 7:54 a.m. Sept. 26 from CCAFS. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann
Release Date:
09/10/2007
Photo Credit:
NASA or National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Release:
National Aeronautics and Space Administration John F. Kennedy Space Center Kennedy Space Center, Florida 32899
facet_what:
Dawn
facet_where:
Florida
facet_when:
09-10-2007
facet_when_year:
2007
Photo Number:
KSC-07PD-2404
UID:
SPD-KSCMA-KSC-07PD-2404
