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XMO6 to XMO7

XMO6 to XMO7
XMO6 to XMO7 The blue curve is Dawn's counterclockwise flight path from XMO6 (the outer green ellipse) to XMO7 (the inner one). Dawn is scheduled to thrust from May 31 to June 6 to accomplish this orbital maneuver. XMO7 will range in altitude from 22 miles (35 kilometers) to 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers). Note that when the spacecraft loops around Ceres in XMO7, it will not return to its orbital starting point. Last month we described (and illustrated with another figure) why it will not follow a closed ellipse. NASA / JPL-Caltech