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News | April 24, 2015

Dawn Enters Science Orbit

This artist's concept shows NASA's Dawn spacecraft heading toward the dwarf planet Ceres.
This artist's concept shows NASA's Dawn spacecraft heading toward the dwarf planet Ceres. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Dawn Mission Status Report

UPDATE April 27, 2015: Dawn began its science operations at 7:25 p.m. PDT/10:25 p.m. EDT on Friday, April 24 and performed as expected over the weekend.

NASA's Dawn spacecraft entered into its first science orbit on Thursday, April 23, as scheduled. Following a delay in communicating a command sequence, the spacecraft briefly entered into safe mode and awaited further instructions, which were sent by mission controllers. As of early Friday, April 24, the spacecraft returned to normal operating mode and the mission team continues to prepare for science data collection.

More information on the Dawn mission is online at:

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov