NASA / Jim Grossmann
A WEEK FROM TODAY (HOPEFULLY)... I’d repost what I said the last time I made a 7-days-till-launch alert regarding Dawn, but by doing that I’m gonna mention outdated info about the spacecraft having to launch before the Phoenix Mars lander does (it lifted off last month), or else it runs the risk of being delayed till September (which would be this month!) if it doesn’t make its short launch window in July (which it didn’t!). So I’ll just say that Dawn’s launch window this time around extends to October 15, and doesn’t run the risk of being grounded by afternoon thunderstorms since it is now scheduled to launch at 7:25 AM, Eastern Daylight Time (or before dawn, pun intended, if you live on the West Coast of the U.S. like I do). However, Dawn could still be delayed if crappy weather thwarts the fueling of its second stage booster days before next Wednesday’s liftoff. I’m not jinxing it. That’s one of the factors that grounded Dawn two months ago.
UCLA / William K. Hartmann
Dawn will be the last of the three spacecraft this year (behind Phoenix and Japan's Kaguya lunar orbiter, which launched 6 days ago) carrying some sort of hardware that has the names of mine and thousands of other people on it. I’ll talk more about it next week...when hopefully, and finally, Dawn starts its long-anticipated sojourn into the deep vastness of the Asteroid Belt. I like using big words, and getting potentially repetitive, in my Blog. What’s an asteroid? Just kidding.
NASA KSC / Jim Grossmann
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