NASA Spacecraft Is a 'Go' for Asteroid Beltbrics

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Inside the mobile service tower on Launch Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station technicians secure both halves of the fairing around the Dawn spacecraft to the upper stage booster of the Delta II rocket below. The fairing is a molded structure ...
Inside the mobile service tower on Launch Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, technicians secure both halves of the fairing around the Dawn spacecraft to the upper stage booster of the Delta II rocket below. The fairing is a molded structure that fits flush with the outside surface of the Delta II upper stage booster and forms an aerodynamically smooth nose cone, protecting the spacecraft during launch and ascent. Image credit: NASA

Launch and flight teams are in final preparations for the planned Sept. 27 liftoff from Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., of NASA's Dawn mission. The Dawn spacecraft will venture into the heart of the asteroid belt, where it will document in exceptional detail the mammoth rocky asteroid Vesta, and then, the even bigger icy dwarf planet Ceres.


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All News summaries for September 25, 2007

'Impressionist' Spacecraft to View Solar System's Invisible Frontier

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(PhysOrg.com) -- At the edge of our solar system in December 2004, the Voyager 1 spacecraft encountered something never before experienced during its then 26-year cruise through the solar system — an invisible ...

NASA Successfully Tests Parachute for Ares Rocket

25 minutes ago | User rating: not rated yet
(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA and industry engineers have successfully completed the first drop test of a drogue parachute for the Ares I rocket. The drogue parachute is designed to slow the rapid descent of the spent first-stage ...

Partial Solar Eclipse visible from the UK on the morning of 1st August

5 hours ago | User rating: not rated yet
On 1st August 2008 there will be a total eclipse of the Sun, visible from Canada, northern Greenland, Svalbard, the Barents Sea, Russia, Mongolia and China. From the whole of the British Isles observers will see a partial ...

Rising energy, food prices major threats to wetlands as farmers eye new areas for crops

10 hours ago | User rating: not rated yet
Critical food shortages and growing demand for bio-fuels and hydro-electricity due to high fossil fuel prices rank among the greatest threats today to the preservation of precious wetlands worldwide as farmers and developers ...

EPA: Few volunteering to cut greenhouse gases

10 hours ago | User rating: not rated yet
(AP) -- Voluntary pollution-reduction programs touted by the Bush administration as part of the solution to global warming have "limited potential" to reduce greenhouse gases, according to an internal government watchdog.