On 3/27/06, Ronn!Blankenship <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > March 27, 2006 > > Erica Hupp/Dean Acosta > Headquarters, Washington > (202) 358-1237/1400 > > RELEASE: 06-108 > > NASA REINSTATES THE DAWN MISSION > > NASA senior management announced a decision Monday to reinstate the > Dawn mission, a robotic exploration of two major asteroids. Dawn had > been canceled because of technical problems and cost overruns. > > The mission, named because it was designed to study objects dating > from the dawn of the solar system, would travel to Vesta and Ceres, > two of the largest asteroids orbiting the sun between Mars and > Jupiter. Dawn will use an electric ion propulsion system and orbit > multiple objects. > > The mission originally was approved in December 2001 and was set for > launch in June 2006. Technical problems and other difficulties > delayed the projected launch date to July 2007 and pushed the cost > from its original estimate of $373 million to $446 million. The > decision to cancel Dawn was made March 2, 2006, after about $257 > million already had been spent. An additional expenditure of about > $14 million would have been required to terminate the project. > ...
I look forward to seeing the results we'll get from the Robots of Dawn. ~M. Maru _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
