Dawn Revived

NASA Announces Final Dawn Decision Today

“NASA will host a media telecon at 2:30 p.m. EST today to discuss results of the committee reviewing the decision to terminate the DAWN mission.””

Editor’s 11:00 am EST update: NASA Watch has learned that NASA will restart the Dawn mission.

NASA Reinstates the Dawn Mission

“NASA senior management announced a decision Monday to reinstate the Dawn mission, a robotic exploration of two major asteroids. Dawn had been canceled because of technical problems and cost overruns.”

“We revisited a number of technical and financial challenges and the work being done to address them,” said NASA Associate Administrator Rex Geveden, who chaired the review panel. “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.”

Letter from NASA Associate Administrator Rex Geveden to JPL Director Regarding Dawn Cancellation Reclama (PDF)

Editor’s note: Then why was Dawn cancelled in the first place, Rex? And why was it cancelled with so many people left out of the loop including international participants? This doesn’t say much for the veracity or consistency of the process whereby NASA evaluates its various projects these days.