Click here to get back home

NASA Reinstates The Dawn Mission
 Home | NewsGroups | Search | About
Login Password
Register Now!
 alt.sci.planetary    Post an article   get this group's latest topics as an RSS feed add this group's latest topics to your My MSN content add this group's latest topics to your My Yahoo content
Subject Author Date
NASA Reinstates The Dawn Mission baalke 03-27-2006
Posted by baalke on March 27, 2006, 2:56 pm
Please log in for more thread options
 March 27, 2006

Erica Hupp/Dean Acosta
Headquarters, Washington
(202) 358-1237/1400

RELEASE: 06-108

NASA REINSTATES THE DAWN MISSION

NASA senior management announced a decision Monday to reinstate the
Dawn mission, a robotic exploration of two major asteroids. Dawn had
been canceled because of technical problems and cost overruns.

The mission, named because it was designed to study objects dating
from the dawn of the solar system, would travel to Vesta and Ceres,
two of the largest asteroids orbiting the sun between Mars and
Jupiter. Dawn will use an electric ion propulsion system and orbit
multiple objects.

The mission originally was approved in December 2001 and was set for
launch in June 2006. Technical problems and other difficulties
delayed the projected launch date to July 2007 and pushed the cost
from its original estimate of $373 million to $446 million. The
decision to cancel Dawn was made March 2, 2006, after about $257
million already had been spent. An additional expenditure of about
$14 million would have been required to terminate the project.

The reinstatement resulted from a review process that is part of new
management procedures established by NASA Administrator Michael
Griffin. The process is intended to help ensure open debate and
thorough evaluation of major decisions regarding space exploration
and agency operations.

"We revisited a number of technical and financial challenges and the
work being done to address them," said NASA Associate Administrator
Rex Geveden, who chaired the review panel. "Our review determined the
project team has made substantive progress on many of this mission's
technical issues, and, in the end, we have confidence the mission
will succeed."

The Dawn decision document will be available on the Web at:

http://www.nasa.gov/formedia


-end-


Posted by wa2ise on March 27, 2006, 11:56 pm
Please log in for more thread options
 I'm happy that this mission has been restored. May it be successful
and produce good science.

"An additional expenditure of about
$14 million would have been required to terminate the project. "

Was wondering why it costs so much to can a mission. Lay off the
people, and toss the partially built probe in the dumpster out back,
yes?


Posted by Steve Pope on April 10, 2006, 6:53 pm
Please log in for more thread options

>"An additional expenditure of about
>$14 million would have been required to terminate the project. "

>Was wondering why it costs so much to can a mission. Lay off the
>people, and toss the partially built probe in the dumpster out back,
>yes?

Probably the cost of termniating each contract and subcontract.
When you terminate a contract it often converts the contract
from fixed-price to cost-plus. NASA contractors live in hope
that their contracts get termniated early.

Steve


Posted by Sandy Tipper on March 30, 2006, 10:23 am
Please log in for more thread options
> March 27, 2006
>
> Erica Hupp/Dean Acosta
> Headquarters, Washington
> (202) 358-1237/1400
>
> RELEASE: 06-108
>
> NASA REINSTATES THE DAWN MISSION
>

It's always darkest before the DAWN



Similar ThreadsPosted
Re: NASA Reinstates The Dawn Mission March 28, 2006, 11:39 am
Dawn Mission Status - November 2005 November 20, 2005, 12:20 am
Dawn Mission Rescheduled for September Launch July 7, 2007, 9:05 pm
Dawn Mission Status: Spacecraft Tests Ion Engine October 9, 2007, 6:22 pm
UCLA Professor Christopher Russell Leads NASA's Dawn Mission June 26, 2007, 5:58 pm
NASA Briefing on Upcoming Dawn Launch June 20, 2007, 6:32 pm
NASA Postpones Dawn Spacecraft Launch to September 27 September 24, 2007, 12:06 pm
NASA kills off troubled asteroid mission March 4, 2006, 6:29 pm
NASA Postpones Stardust Mission Media Update January 23, 2006, 3:29 pm
NASA Awards Launch Services for Lunar Mission (LRO) July 28, 2006, 5:52 pm

Our other projects:

Art Dolls, Fairies and Mermaids - Sunnyfaces.net

Roy's Linux, Programming and Search Engines messages

1-Script XML SitemapXML Sitemap