WASHINGTON, March 27 (UPI) -- NASA officials announced Monday the reinstatement of its so-called 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 is designed to study objects dating from the dawn of the solar system -- will 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 was set for launch this June but technical problems and other difficulties delayed the projected launch to July 2007 and pushed the estimated cost from $373 million to $446 million.
The reinstatement resulted from a review process that is part of new management procedures established by NASA Administrator Michael Griffin.
"We revisited a number of technical and financial challenges and the work being done to address them," said NASA Associate Administrator Rex Geveden. "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."
