What's the source of your information?

--Emily

They posted it about a week or so ago:

http://www.nasa.gov/missions/highlights/schedule.html

Window added today in fact.

Thanks. Do you know why it's later than September 7?

--Emily

Well, an update: it could potentially move up.

The reason for the 26th is because there is another Delta 2 launch slated to launch out at Vandenberg on Sept. 18. PAO this afternoon here at KSC said if that mission is delayed, or launches on time, Dawn can move up. If delayed, Dawn could potentially be Sept. 19; if that Delta goes on the 18th, Dawn could be the 24th.

I guess we'll see.

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

As a followup I was told recently that its chances of moving up are probably gone.

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

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The journal was also posted on the Planetary Society weblog, but it's now been archived.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

I don't know what all of you are talking about. I just picked up the latest issue of Astronomy magazine, and according to the October issue, Dawn launched on July 7.

I'm so confused! Did it launch or not??

Sorry, just thought it was funny. I can just see the headline in the December issue: NASA launches asteroid probe (for real this time)

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.

Yeah, I reached that point many years ago. Astronomy is just a little too tabloid-ish for my taste, does not come off as professional, and your story's a good example. S&T is the real deal...

Actually, I miss S&T from the 70s & before...stodgy as hell, and liked it that way!

[/OT mode]

The real problem when a magazine publishes an article that you know to be complete and utter fiction...is how often do they do it without you knowing? To get something THAT major, THAT wrong is not even funny.

Doug

Personally. I'm looking forward to the November issue of Astronomy. I can't wait to see how they handle the retraction/correction.

It could be that they put it in there in an attempt to seem up-to-date, something that magazines are very self-conscious about in the age of the internet. From personal experience, I have seen printers print the wrong version of something, even when they have an edited version - perhaps the printer simply left out a last minute change. I would like to think that it was a silly mistake like that. At any rate, I could care less about the mission update blurbs in any of the magazines. I read them for in-depth articles. The updates are outdated when they hit the press. I do like the groundbased updates, because they pick up a lot of stories that are not already well known.

I agree with Ted - no, it shouldn't have happened, but it's an easy trap to fall into and really most likely a small slip in last-minute editing.

Phil

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

Well, I'll agree that it ain't exactly "Dewey defeats Truman", but it's a little more than a small slip. Small slips are the dropped words and typos you see on internet sites like Space.com - and which monthly magazines assiduously avoid. With all the uncertainties known to surround any launch, more than the usual attention is warranted on stories on like this. Nothing wrong in writing "by the time you read this article, the DAWN mission should have already launched and be underway".

Allowing a story to reach the bookshelves that a launch successfully occurred, all the while the rocket is still sitting on the pad, well, they have to be a bit embarrassed, I should think.

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...

Any data returned yet? Maybe a back-looking view of Earth+Moon??

Uh, I think they have to REALLY launch it first. :-)

--Greg

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

I like the way JPL's public affairs office refers to Ceres and Vesta in their latest (Sept 11) press release on Dawn: "the massive asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres". It reads as if Vesta were larger than Ceres! ("massive asteroid" vs "dwarf planet")

======
Stephen

Good writeup today:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/new...-20070913f.html

Note in the article linked by Ben, adjectives have been added to the asteroids so it is now "the massive asteroid Vesta and the even more massive dwarf planet Ceres"!

Using the Prius as an example of good efficiency is also rather poor - as on long duration high speed journeys (such as Dawn) - a Prius will offer significantly worse economy than a small diesel car (by about 50%)

Doug

In his recent blog entry on Emily Lakdawalla's TPS web blog
( http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001144/ ) Dr. Marc Ryman explained aspects of the launch and deployment of Dawn. In explaining the yo-yo system of spin-reduction for the spacecraft prior to separation from the third stage he wrote: "....the small yo-yo system halts the spin and even reverses it, leaving Dawn rotating at 3 rpm in the opposite direction from its original spin."

How is it that a yo-yo system can REVERSE the spin on the spacecraft if it is working solely through the conservation of angular momentum?

A is the angular momentum before yo-yo system is used

B+C s the angular momentum after yo-yo system is used

B is the yo yo angular momentum

C is the spacecraft angular momentum

A= B + C

C<0 if B>A

therefore C is "'reversed"

OK, I buy Jim's mechanics/algebra....

But does this mean that a figure skater (the perennial analogy for this) could reverse his/her spin if he/she had longer arms or carried heavy weights in their arms? And the only reason that we never see this is that they don't?

Generally this is presented as: The angular momentum is conserved. The moment of inertia is increased without in any way adding/subtracting angular momentum (putting the arms out), therefore, the same angular momentum divided by the greater moment of inertia yields a lower but >0 angular rotation.

I may be dense but I don't quite get the difference between the two analyses....

DG

I would think to get a negative spin, would require something more than just the "weight on a string". Maybe the weights are on flexible sticks? Or, maybe the weights are attached to a spinning ring, that would allow you to start spinning the opposite way.

EDIT: Ah, the strings for the weight are wrapped around the booster. So it would be possible for the craft to start rotating the other way as the weights deploy. I guess they must cut the strings before the weights start wrapping back around the booster.

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.

Delta 2 apparently passed the Ariane (4?) sequential success record of 74 successful launches in sequence with 75. This was reported as making 138 successful Delta 2 launches out of 140 attempts.

128/130. Yes, it is a new modern record streak.

First thing to go is short term memory.......what were we talking about?

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 strings unhook when the tethers are fully extended.

Launch has been postponed to Thursday, Sept. 27 at 7:20am. Weather has prevented fuel loading on the second stage again (already a day late this week).

Our own mars loon is blogging the launch for the Planetary Society. Nice job on the first installment, Ken

TTT

Emphasis on "modern". Did some googling and found Space Launch Report and Astronautix's Tsyklon 2 page which show 104/105 success/attempt record with 92 consecutive successes. Tsyklon 2 is not exactly "modern" (major design pretty much unchanged from 1969) but it appears to be still flying with last launch in 2006. Knock on wood, Delta II stands a good chance of breaking the consecutive success record since its launch rate is an order of magnitude higher than Tsyklon 2's recent launch rate of about one launch every 2-3 years.

Dawn launch delayed one day due to bad weather .... technicians were unable to complete fuel loading yesterday.

http://spaceflightnow.com/delta/d327/status.html

Craig

See 3 posts above yours.

Doug

Hey Tom,

thanks for the citation.

yeah the weather was quite awful down here today. thunder and buckets of rain. hopefully better tomorrow

ken

I've split this Dawn thread in three: pre_launch (this one), launch and cruise.