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NASA launches spacecraft. Image from foreign website. |
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has decided to resume its mission to explore two of the largest asteroids in the solar system. A few weeks ago, NASA had decided to cancel this project due to technical and financial reasons.
The Dawn spacecraft, tasked with studying objects that have existed since the early formation of the solar system around 4.5 billion years ago, will be placed into orbit around the two asteroids Vesta and Ceres.
These are among the largest asteroids in the solar system, orbiting the Sun in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Initially, the Dawn mission was decided upon in December 2001, with the spacecraft’s launch planned for June 2006. However, various issues caused the launch to be delayed until 2007, increasing costs to $446 million (instead of the initially estimated $373 million).
