<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><head></head><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Courier; "><span style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">"After successfully completing nearly five months scrutinizing the giant asteroid Vesta at its lowest orbit altitude, NASA's Dawn spacecraft will begin its final major science data-gathering phase at Vesta on June 15, at an average altitude of 420 miles (680 kilometers) above the surface.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Courier; min-height: 14px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Courier; min-height: 14px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: right; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Courier; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i>This artist's concept shows NASA's Dawn</i></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: right; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Courier; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i>spacecraft orbiting the giant asteroid Vesta. </i></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: right; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Courier; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i>Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech </i><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/multimedia/pia15174.html"><span style="font: 12.0px Courier; text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px; color: #1f00ac"><i>Full image and caption</i></span></a></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Courier; min-height: 14px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Courier; min-height: 14px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Courier; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">Over the past six weeks, Dawn has been gently spiraling up from its lowest orbit – 130 miles, or 210 kilometers, above the surface - to the final planned science orbit, known as high-altitude mapping orbit 2. Observations obtained from this orbit will provide a companion set of data and images to those obtained during the first high-altitude mapping orbit phase, completed in October 2011. A key difference will be that the angle of sunlight hitting Vesta has changed, illuminating more of its northern region. The principal science observations planned in this new orbit will be obtained with the framing camera and the visible and infrared mapping spectrometer."</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Courier; min-height: 14px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Courier; color: rgb(31, 0, 172); "><span style="text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px"><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?collection_id=65362&media_id=143122771">Dawn's Virtual Flight over Vesta<span style="text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px; color: #1f00ac"></span></a></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Courier; min-height: 14px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Courier; color: rgb(31, 0, 172); "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; color: #000000">A gallery of images can be found online at: <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/multimedia/gallery-index.html"><span style="text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px">http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/multimedia/gallery-index.html</span></a>.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Courier; min-height: 14px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Courier; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">For more information on the Dawn mission, visit the Dawn home page: <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/main/index.html"><span style="font: 12.0px Courier; text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px; color: #3300ff">http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/main/index.html</span></a>.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Courier; min-height: 14px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Courier; "><span style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"></span></div></body></html>