NASA Spacecraft to Enter Asteroid’s Orbit on July 15

By Ben on July 15, 2011 at 7:00 pm | In Blog Posts | No Comments

Are we there yet?
Are we there yet?
Are we there yet?

–Ben

NASA Spacecraft to Enter Asteroid’s Orbit on July 15

July 14, 2011 – PASADENA, Calif. — On July 15, NASA’s Dawn spacecraft will begin a prolonged encounter with the asteroid Vesta, making the mission the first to enter orbit around a main-belt asteroid.

As the spacecraft approaches Vesta, surface details are coming into focus, as seen in a recent image taken from a distance of about 26,000 miles (41,000 kilometers). The image is available at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/multimedia/dawn-image-070911.html.

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/feature_stories/spacecraft_to_enter_asteroid_orbit.asp