Bah! Ship within SRB splashdown area!

Launch area weather conditions "go" for launch. Now in a 10 minute hold.

Weather forecast improved to 80%!

According to http://www.spaceflightnow.com

Cross fingers... The outlook could improve once the weather observation plane becomes airborne

The Mobile Service Tower has rolled back... The Delta II is now completely out in the open.

Awesome! Thanks Ben

Any word on the second stage being "go" at fueling today?

The Delta II having a super duper launch record, which hopefully--not to jinx it, obviously--continues next week.

Anyways, the Dawn is in process of being encapsulated in the nose fairing right now.

http://countdown.ksc.nasa.gov/elv/public/

The Delta II carrying the Worldview 1 satellite successfully launched from Vandenberg AFB in California a few minutes ago. That officially paves the way (overlooking the flight and launch readiness reviews) for Dawn to launch next Wednesday. Hopefully.

Where is Kaguya? "It is in the position of present KAGUYA."

http://www.selene.jaxa.jp/en/communication/position_e.htm

Makes you appreciate JPL's Solar System Simulator a lot more.

HIGH GAIN ANTENNA DEPLOYMENT (In-flight image taken of HGA!)

http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2007/09/20070915_kaguya_e.html

SOLAR PANEL DEPLOYMENT (In-flight image taken of "Paddle"!)

http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2007/09/20070915_kaguya-2_e.html

Kaguya will take around 19 days to reach the Moon, 37 days till it settles into its final, 100 km high orbit.

Deadline changed to May 1, 2008. LRO should DEFINITELY have a lot more names onboard than Kaguya if this opportunity ends 7 months from now...

While more than 412,000 names and messages will hopefully be heading towards the Moon tonight onboard Japan's Kaguya spacecraft, you can submit your name again (courtesy of The Planetary Society)...this time onboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter...

http://planetary.org/special/fromearth/lro

HURRY! Deadline is March 31, 2008.

A little more than 5 hours before launch... Godspeed, Kaguya!

http://countdown.ksc.nasa.gov/elv/public/

Back at the pad... Webcam footage of CCAFS folks removing the payload canister from Dawn at 17-B

http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/search.cfm?cat=173

Dawn is back in its payload canister...ready to be returned to LC 17-B tonight...

Don't get me wrong... I'll continue to read Astronomy. I just didn't read that last issue 'cause that mistake, how should I say, turned me off

The Dawn journals are still better than the blogs on the Phoenix website... The Phoenix blogs are either too short and don't contain enough interesting information, the grammar is SO bad and the text sounds like something you'd read on an AOL chatroom, or the entries DON'T EVEN talk about the Phoenix mission itself. I'd post examples...but my Internet connection is too darn slow right now... I hate Verizon.

And I actually stopped looking at that Astronomy issue once I saw that article on Dawn "launching". A minor misspelling or one inaccurate tidbit is okay...but it's pretty unprofessional that the editor would let an entire article like that get through. It's all about reading "Sky & Telescope" for me, now!! J/k

EDIT: Where'd you go, Greg?? People will think I made that rant above for no apparent reason

By the way, the best space journals are the PI Perspectives on New Horizon by Alan Stern...and I'm not just saying that 'cause he actually posts on UMSF, lol.

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/launch...s-20070907.html

STATUS REPORT: ELV-090707


Expendable Launch Vehicle Status Report

Mission: Dawn
Location: Astrotech payload processing facility
Launch Vehicle: Delta II 7925-H
Launch Pad: 17-B
Launch Date: Sept. 26, 2007
Launch Window: 7:25 - 7:54 a.m. EDT

Engineers loaded liquid oxygen aboard the first stage late last week as a test for first stage components.

Dawn spacecraft operational readiness testing is complete.

Spacecraft thermal blanket closeout work is being finished today.

Technicians will be installing Dawn into the payload canister on Sept. 10 for transportation to Launch Complex 17. The spacecraft will be mated to the Delta II rocket at Pad 17-B on Sept. 11.

The flight program verification, an integrated launch readiness test with the Dawn spacecraft integrated with the Delta II, is scheduled for Sept. 13.

Installation of the payload fairing around the spacecraft is scheduled for Sept. 19.

***************************

Also, a new Dawn Journal is online: http://www.dawn-mission.org/mission/journal_9_03_07.asp

The journal was also posted on the Planetary Society weblog, but it's now been archived. Sorry Emily if I didn't link to that too

Considering Dawn's luck over the past two years, I'm not surprised. Just launch it before Halloween, please. Just because.

Now that it's September, here's hoping Dawn finally gets off the ground before the end of this month.

I'm more than 3 months late, but here's a pic I took of the MSL model at the JPL Open House... I took more, but I'll just post this one.

Launch update:

Date: Sept. 26 (No earlier than)
Launch Time: 7:24 a.m. EDT

At least the afternoon T-storms are obviously not an issue...

There is now a "Where is Phoenix?" page on the official website:

http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/where_phoenix.php

Looks like someone on the project saw my post. J/k.