After a frustrating set of July launch delays, a decision has been made by the Dawn Project to launch Dawn in its September / October launch window.

Update: The September 27 launch was a success!

(The mosaic shows the exhaust trail from Dawn's Delta II launch vehicle superimposed on the sunrise over Cape Canaveral. Photo Credit: Randy Pollock)

What, you haven't heard of Dawn?

 

Today ended more than a year of hard work for Europe's space-based scientists and their collaborators located all over the world. It was final submittal day to the European Space Agency's (ESA's) Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 Program. The proposals responding to this call, encompassing approximately 1000-2000 proposal-writing-dazed scientists, will eventually lead to the selection of one medium-sized mission (Class M) to enter the implementation phase in 2012, with a launch foreseen in the mid-2017 time-frame.