article_snippet: (CNN)NASA's tractor-trailer sized Dawn spacecraft will snuggle up to Ceres on Friday, getting close enough to be pulled into orbit and to complete the first mission to a dwarf planet.
article_snippet: I'm just delighted that Dawn is now on the doorstep of Ceres," Jim Green, director of NASA's planetary science division said in a news conference on Monday.
article_snippet: Dawn is expected to begin orbiting Ceres around 7:20 a.m. ET, but NASA says it may take an hour or two to confirm it.
article_snippet: Scientists expect to learn more as Dawn is gradually lowered to about 235 miles above the surface of Ceres in December.
article_snippet: Dawn was launched on September 27, 2007, from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
article_snippet: On Friday, Dawn will make Dawn closest approach yet to Ceres, flying about 25,000 miles from Dawn, according to Robert Mase, project manager for the Dawn mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
article_snippet: Dawn will stay in orbit around Ceres for years, even after Ceres primary mission ends in June 2016.
article_snippet: Between now and then -- mission managers hope Dawn will help solve the mysteries of Ceres and add to our knowledge of how our solar system formed.
highlights_snippet: NASA's Dawn spacecraft arrives Friday at Ceres .
  