The area of slight damage done by a technician's tool to the back of a solar array panel on the Dawn spacecraft is under repair.

The area of slight damage done by a technician's tool to the back of a solar array panel on the Dawn spacecraft is under repair. The damage occurred at Astrotech on June 11 during a procedure to prepare Dawn for spin-balance testing. The size of the affected area is about 2.5 inches by 2 inches. There is no impact to the launch date of July 7. Dawn's goal is to characterize the conditions and processes of the solar system's earliest epoch 4.5 billion years ago by investigating in detail two of the largest asteroids, Ceres and Vesta. They reside between Mars and Jupiter in the asteroid belt. Photo credit: NASA/George Shelton