COUNTDOWN TO JUNE... At 6:00 AM, Pacific Standard Time today, the Dawn spacecraft arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida...where it will begin final launch preparations as it nears liftoff on June 30. In terms of its mission, Dawn is expected to fly into the heart of the Asteroid Belt, where it will study Vesta (in 2011) and the dwarf planet Ceres (in 2015). If you’re wondering why I’m writing about this particular space flight in my Blog, click here, here and here. There’s a sense of personal involvement that I—along with 360,000 other people—have with this project. Actually, the reason is in the photo right below...
Below is a list of key milestones awaiting Dawn before it rises from the launch pad around 2:13 PM, PST, on June 30th:
Late April: Installation and testing of the spacecraft’s two large solar panel wings.
Early May: Compatibility test between Dawn and NASA’s Deep Space Network...a trio of large radio antennas located in California, Australia and Spain that will be used to communicate with Dawn once it is in space.
Mid-May: The spacecraft will undergo a spin-balance test before being mated to its third stage booster
Late May: Erection of the first stage booster of the Delta II rocket, which will launch Dawn into space, at Pad 17-B in Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS).
Mid-June: A leak check will be conducted on the Delta II’s first stage booster.
June 19: Delivery of Dawn, now attached to its third stage booster and enclosed inside the nose cone fairing of the Delta II vehicle, to the launch pad at CCAFS. Dawn and its third stage component will be attached to the second stage booster and thus complete final assembly of the Delta II vehicle.
I’ll post up photos of Dawn at its processing facility in Florida once they become available.
Courtesy of the Orbital Sciences Corporation
No comments:
Post a Comment