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BACK AT THE PAD... Yesterday morning, the Dawn spacecraft was re-attached to its Delta II rocket at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, after spending more than a month in storage waiting for its next launch opportunity. Originally scheduled for launch on July 7, various factors—such as the launch of the Phoenix Mars Lander on August 4 to bad weather preventing fueling of its second stage booster only days before liftoff—prompted Dawn to be placed on stand-down as NASA looked for a new date to try sending the spacecraft on its long-awaited trip to the Asteroid Belt. That new date is September 26...when Dawn will hopefully lift off from its seaside pad at 4:25 AM, Pacific Daylight Time. Dawn will have till October 15 to launch on an eight-year voyage to the asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. Hopefully it won’t go down to the wire like that... Won’t say anymore ‘cause, as usual, I don’t wanna jinx it!


NASA KSC / Jim Grossmann