NASA's DAWN Mission

Our Planetarium Director Jay Reynolds wears many hats in the space science community. This morning he was up early, rooting for the long-delayed launch of NASA's DAWN space probe:

As I write this, technicians at NASA Cape Canaveral are preparing to roll the large gantry tower which will finally reveal the rocket that will propel the Space Probe DAWN on it’s 8 year journey. DAWN is a mission to the asteroid belt, reaching its first asteroid destination VESTA in 2011. The probe will then break orbit of VESTA and reach the dwarf planet CERES in 2015.

Since this past March, students of Cleveland State University and Lakeland Community College have been providing telescope support for this mission. This past June, our student researchers and I were invited to Kennedy Space Center to present our research to the science team and educators.

It is also good to point out that the ION engines that DAWN will use were developed by our own NASA Glenn Research Center, right here in Northern Ohio .

Thursday morning, after years of delays, 2 mission cancellations and restorations, 4 actual launch delays, DAWN is scheduled to leave Earth, at 7:20 a.m. EDT. It is sometimes described as “the rocket that wouldn’t leave!” My students and I will be watching with anticipation! Go DAWN!

Jay and his Cleveland State students were not disappointed as DAWN began its 1.7 billion mile journey through the inner solar system at 7:34 a.m. this morning.

We love Jay's connection to NASA! The affiliation allows us to bring exciting, cutting edge space photos and information to all our Schuele Planetarium programs. In fact, if you attended any of our seasonal star shows during the month of August, you already learned about asteroids and the DAWN mission.