Dawn ready to travel to the asteroid belt

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Sept. 26 (UPI) -- Final preparations were under way Wednesday at Cape Canaveral, Fla., for the launch of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Dawn mission.

The spacecraft, scheduled for a 7:20 a.m.-7:49 a.m. EDT Thursday liftoff window, will travel to the asteroid belt to investigate the giant rocky asteroid Vesta, and then it is to travel to the even larger icy dwarf planet Ceres.

"If you live in the Bahamas this is one time you can tell your neighbor, with a straight face, that Dawn will rise in the west," said Dawn Project Manager Keyur Patel of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "Weather permitting, we are go for launch Thursday morning -- a little after dawn."

About 56 minutes after launch, the third and final stage will ignite for approximately 87 seconds. When the third stage burns out, actuators and push-off springs will separate the spacecraft from the third stage.

"After separation, the spacecraft will go through an automatic activating sequence, including stabilizing the spacecraft, activating flight systems and deploying Dawn's two massive solar arrays," said Patel. "We expect acquisition of signal to occur anywhere from 1 1/2 hours to 3 1/2 hours after launch."

It will take four years for Dawn to reach the asteroid belt.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International

NewsTrack: Dawn ready to travel to the asteroid belt