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Illustration of the Dawn spacecraft with its long solar panels above the grey, cratered dwarf planet Ceres.

Launched: 27 September 2007Status: Not working any more

Dawn

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

In orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres

Dawn used ion engines to fly to Vesta, where it went into orbit in July 2011. Later it flew on to Ceres and went into orbit there on 6 March 2015, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit two worlds beyond Earth.

Where is it now?

In orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres

The story

Why did it go?

To visit two very different worlds in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter: the giant asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres.

Dawn used ion engines to fly to Vesta, where it went into orbit in July 2011. Later it flew on to Ceres and went into orbit there on 6 March 2015, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit two worlds beyond Earth.

The Dawn spacecraft in a clean room, ready to be moved to the launch pad.(opens larger view)

The real Dawn spacecraft before launch.

Image: KSC

By the numbers

The mission in numbers

launch year
2007
from arrival to the end of the mission
2,665 days
mass
747.1 kg
type of mission
Robotic
objects listed as left behind
1

Timeline

The journey, step by step

  1. 27 September 2007

    Launch

  2. 16 July 2011

    Arrival in orbit

  3. 1 November 2018

    Mission ends

Still there today

What did it leave behind?

  • Status: Not working any more

    Dawn spacecraft

    NASA calls it "an inert celestial monument" in orbit around Ceres.

In pictures

Take a closer look

A lone mountain with steep, streaked sides rising from the surface of Ceres.(opens larger view)

Ahuna Mons, a mountain on Ceres, photographed by Dawn.

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA/PSI

A Delta II rocket rising into the clouds on a column of fire and smoke.(opens larger view)

Dawn's launch from Cape Canaveral in 2007.

Image: KSC

Science legacy

What did we learn?

At Ceres, Dawn found that the bright spots in Occator crater are salt left behind by salty water from deep below, and that there is ice just below the surface across much of the dwarf planet.

Close-up of Ceres' cratered surface with flecks of bright material.(opens larger view)

Flecks of bright material on Ceres, photographed by Dawn from its lowest orbit in 2015.

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

Did you know?

Dawn ran out of hydrazine fuel on 31 October 2018, so it can no longer point itself. It will stay in orbit around Ceres for at least a couple of decades, and probably much longer.

Sources and fact-check