NASA Dawn Asteroid Mission Told To 'Stand Down'

A NASA mission to two of the largest asteroids in the solar system
being readied for liftoff next year has been placed in "stand down"
mode.

The ion-engine propelled Dawn mission is dedicated to investigating the
two most massive asteroids known: Vesta and Ceres. These two "baby
planets" are very different from each other yet both offer tantalizing
clues about the formation of the solar system. Dawn is designed to
improve scientific understanding of how planets formed during the
earliest epoch of the solar system.

Dawn has been on NASA's books for liftoff in mid-June 2006.

The decision to stand down, according to SPACE.com sources, appears
related to budget-related measures and workforce cutbacks at the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. ...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/200511...oldtostanddown

Ra♥ï�g L♂♀♫iε wrote:
A NASA mission to two of the largest asteroids in the solar system
being readied for liftoff next year has been placed in "stand down"
mode.

The ion-engine propelled Dawn mission is dedicated to investigating the
two most massive asteroids known: Vesta and Ceres. These two "baby
planets" are very different from each other yet both offer tantalizing
clues about the formation of the solar system. Dawn is designed to
improve scientific understanding of how planets formed during the
earliest epoch of the solar system.

Dawn has been on NASA's books for liftoff in mid-June 2006.

The decision to stand down, according to SPACE.com sources, appears
related to budget-related measures and workforce cutbacks at the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. ...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/200511...oldtostanddown

NASA Names New Shuttle a Priority


Picture ~~~~ http://tinyurl.com/9fc4y

NASA's top priorities are a replacement for the space shuttle and
completing the international space station, and some other programs are
being cut or deferred to concentrate the agency's resources, NASA
Administrator Michael D. Griffin said Thursday.

"NASA cannot afford to do everything on its plate today," he told the
House Science Committee. Funding priorities required the agency to
cancel several programs that "we either did not need or did not need
right now," Griffin said.

For example, it seemed like putting the cart before the horse to
continue life science studies about how people respond to being in
space before the agency was sure it could put people back in space, he
said.

In addition to life sciences, another affected program is nuclear
systems technology, Griffin said.

That program is designed to provide power to an outpost planned for the
surface of the moon. But that won't be needed until after 2018, so the
work is currently being deferred, he said.

The agency has adopted a "go-as-you-can-pay" approach, Griffin said.
.... [End quote]

Text source ~~~~ http://tinyurl.com/9tvzz

RL
==========================================

Oh, the grand old Duke of York,
He had ten thousand men:
He marched them up to the top of the hill,
And he marched them down again.
And when they were up they were up,
And when they were down they were down,
And when they were only half way up,
They were neither up nor down.

Ceres is the largest asteroid. Found in the year 1801. Looking at a
picture of it as I type and it has a more round shape then those Idaho
asteroids. More like a Maine potato. Our best theory is all this
stuff clumped together 4.6 billion years ago to form the rock planets.
Ceres is 650 miles across. Well there were lots more
pebbles,boulders,and rocks some half the size of our Moon,and lots of
chunks of iron,and all came out of cosmic accretion disk. Now the
left over debris lies between Mars and Jupiter,and I posted this a week
ago. The presents of nearby Jupiter,whose gravity tugs at these
rocks,and keeps them from sticking together. I read that many moons ago
and it makes sense to me. Bert

RL 1 NASA top priority is to get back the great engineers that quit. 2
Find a glue that works 3 stop shipping most of the money to Swiss banks
40 years of Rube Goldberg Shuttling is enough time wasted NASA
Mafia's greed has reached 2 billion bucks a year. Griffin knows that
better than us