NASA's Dawn spacecraft

[Gale]

NASA's Dawn spacecraft will be in orbit around the asteroid Vesta for a year then move on to Ceres in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. NASA will release a picture a day on the Dawn web site, Dawn Mission JPL (http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/)




Since entering orbit, Dawn has taken more than 500 pictures, while refining its path and inching ever closer to the surface to get a better view. The probe will officially start collecting science data next week once it is 1,700 miles (2,735 kilometres) from the surface. It will get as close as 110 miles (177 kilometres) while it orbits Vesta for a year.

[Norval]

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Though the $466 million project was conceived long before the United States decided to send astronauts to an asteroid by 2025, the data gathered by Dawn should help future manned missions.

The team does not plan to post raw images online as other NASA missions have done. Instead, there will be just one picture released daily.

Dawn has taken more than 500 pictures, while refining its path and inching ever closer to the surface to get a better view.