Mission controllers received confirmation today that NASA's Dawn
spacecraft has escaped from the gentle gravitational grip of the
giant asteroid Vesta. Dawn is now officially on its way to its
second destination, the dwarf planet Ceres. Dawn departed from
Vesta at about 11:26 p.m. PDT on Sept. 4 (2:26 a.m. EDT on Sept.
5). Communications from the spacecraft via NASA's Deep Space
Network confirmed the departure and that the spacecraft is now
traveling toward Ceres. "As we respectfully say goodbye to Vesta
and reflect on the amazing discoveries over the past year, we
eagerly look forward to the next phase of our adventure at
Ceres, where even more exciting discoveries await," said Robert
Mase, Dawn project manager, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Launched on Sept. 27, 2007, Dawn
slipped into orbit around Vesta on July 15, 2011 PDT (July 16
EDT). Over the past year, Dawn has comprehensively mapped this
previously uncharted world, revealing an exotic and diverse
planetary building bloc