“It will be terrible to see Dawn’s Departure from our mission,we are proud of its 11 years of breaking record in planetary science and many accomplishments, Dawn’s Science and engineering achievements will echo throughout history” Lori Glaze, acting director of NASA’s Planetary Science Divisions

Dawn is a spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral SLC-17B  in Florida by NASA in September 2007 with the mission to characterize the conditions and process of solar system’s earliest eon and study the two largest bodies in asteroid belt -Vesta and Ceres which is between Mars and Jupiter. Dawn reached Vesta in July 2011 and studied the object from orbit for 14 months. The spacecraft observations disclosed that Vesta’s giant rheasilvia crater is even bigger than expert had thought, with a diameter of 310 miles (500km) and a depth of 12 miles( 19km)

In September 2012, the spacecraft departed for Ceres and arrived at this final destination in March 2015, becoming the first and only probe ever to orbit a dwarf planet. Dawn with its super efficient propulsion and power, generates thrust by expelling ions of xenon from a nozzle, accomplished these explorations

 Sadly, NASA Dawn’s Mission is likely to shut down as it runs out of hydrazine, a key fuel with which the probe will lose its ability to study Ceres and will to lose its potential to communicate with Earth. The spacecraft will remain in a silent orbit around Ceres to avoid the possibility to adulterate its surface. $US473 million being the cost of the mission and its primary component originated from Europe . The Manufacturer were orbital Sciences, JPL, UCLA

“This is what I like to think of as ‘acceleration with patience, It opens up destinations in the solar system that NASA would otherwise be completely unable to reach This continues to be a mission for everyone who yearns for new knowledge, curious about cosmos” mission director and chief engineer Marc Rayman of NASA’s (JPL) said during news conference

NASA’s Dawn Project team achieved two successful awards and was chosen for the prestigious National Aeronautic Association Robert j. Collier Trophy , annual aviation award managed by U.S National Aeronautic Association(NAA) . This award is presented annually for the greatest achievements in aeronautics or astronautics in America.

Dusk for Dawn.