NASA Dawn probe to set off on solar system discovery

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2007

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US space agency is set to launch on Thursday the space probe Dawn on an eight-year mission to unlock the secrets of the solar system and how it was born.

After several delays in recent months, NASA said Wednesday it is finally ready to launch the unmanned craft on its mission to Ceres and Vesta, the two largest asteroids orbiting the sun, in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

The deep-space explorer, measuring 1.64 meters (yards) long and 1.27 meters (yards) wide, aims to provide a better understanding of the building blocks that formed the terrestrial planets and how the two "protoplanets" followed different evolutionary paths.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration set the liftoff window for Thursday between 1120...