[meteorite-list] NASA Cancels Dawn Mission

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Mar 3 11:24:22 2006
Message-ID: <200603031622.k23GMMs10313_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/space/3698377.html

NASA cancels mission to study two asteroids
By ALICIA CHANG
Associated Press
March 3, 2006

LOS ANGELES - NASA on Thursday canceled a mission to visit two
asteroids, five months after the program was put on hold because of cost
overruns and technical problems.

The cancellation is the latest setback for NASA, which has been forced
to delay science missions to focus on developing a new manned spacecraft
to return to the moon in the next decade.

The project was capped at around $371 million, project scientists said
previously. But scientists asked for an additional $40 million last year.

The Dawn spacecraft was supposed to lift off in June on a nine-year
voyage to two of the solar system's largest asteroids, Ceres and Vesta,
which reside in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Asteroids are believed to be remnants from the solar system's formation
about 4.5 billion years ago, and studying them could provide clues into
how the sun and planets formed.

Dawn would have been the first spacecraft to orbit the two asteroids,
which scientists believe formed in different parts of the solar system
and had different evolutionary processes.

Dawn was part of a NASA program called Discovery that aims to explore
the solar system on what the space agency considers to be a shoestring
budget. The program includes the Stardust mission, which returned to
Earth in January with samples of comet dust.

The Dawn mission was managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena.
Received on Fri 03 Mar 2006 11:22:21 AM PST