The Dawn spacecraft should inject into orbit around the 530 km
wide asteroid Vesta today (Saturday 16 July 2011). Confirmation should be received tomorrow (Sunday UTC) when the spacecraft begins transmission of status data. The initial orbit around Vesta should be around 16, 000 km from the asteroid, but decreasing ultimately to about 200 km over time – so the future images will be spectacular. The probe will study Vesta for about a year, before moving on the orbit the asteroid Ceres. This is made possible by the use of Dawn’s solar power ion engine. (see picture gallery)
wide asteroid Vesta today (Saturday 16 July 2011). Confirmation should be received tomorrow (Sunday UTC) when the spacecraft begins transmission of status data. The initial orbit around Vesta should be around 16, 000 km from the asteroid, but decreasing ultimately to about 200 km over time – so the future images will be spectacular. The probe will study Vesta for about a year, before moving on the orbit the asteroid Ceres. This is made possible by the use of Dawn’s solar power ion engine. (see picture gallery)
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