Technicians at Astrotech check the Dawn spacecraft before spin balance testing.

Technicians at Astrotech check the Dawn spacecraft before spin-balance testing. After the test, Dawn will then be mated to the upper stage booster, installed into a spacecraft transportation canister for the trip to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and mated to the Delta II rocket at Launch Pad 17-B.The Dawn spacecraft will employ ion propulsion to explore two of the asteroid belt's most intriguing and dissimilar occupants: asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. Dawn's goal is to characterize the conditions and processes of the solar system's earliest epoch by investigating in detail these largest protoplanets that have remained intact since their formations. Ceres and Vesta reside in the extensive zone between Mars and Jupiter together with many other smaller bodies, called the asteroid belt. Dawn is scheduled to launch July 7. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller