Celebrating a Flurry of Activity, NASA Dubs Next 23 Months the "Year Of the Solar System"
Dawn In July 2011, Dawn will insert itself into orbit around Vesta, the second-most massive body in the asteroid belt. Though not a planet, Vesta has some interesting characteristics, including distinctive light and dark regions that resemble the moon's. A year later, Dawn will fire up its ion engines and make its way to the dwarf planet Ceres. It will be the first craft to leave one celestial body's orbit and take off for another, according to NASA. Photo courtesy of NASA NASA is preparing a flurry of new spacecraft launches, planetary flybys and orbital insertions in the next two years, and is celebrating the "Year of the Solar System" to mark the occasion. Twenty-three months is actually a Martian year, so hey, it works. The space agency has dozens of missions at any given time, and scientists are always maneuvering some spacecraft into a new orbit or into a new trajectory....