Dawn, NASA's mission to the Asteroid Belt, comes to an end

Dawn, the little spacecraft that could, has ended its mission into the asteroid belt.  Launched in September 2007, it is the first probe to orbit one celestial body and then leave to orbit another one.  Dawn arrived at Vesta in July 2011 and studied the protoplanet for 14 months.

Dawn left Vesta and traveled to Ceres, arriving in March 2015, where it remains.  It missed several scheduled communications and NASA has concluded it has run out of hydrazine, the fuel that helps the craft keep its antennae pointed toward Earth and its solar panels to the sun.

Its mission lasted three years longer than anticipated.

Dawn achieves orbit around protoplanet Vesta, 2011

NASA's Dawn probe, launched in 2007, entered orbit around the "protoplanet" Vesta in the asteroid belt July 16, 2011.  It is the first spacecraft to visit Vesta and Ceres, a dwarf planet where Dawn is currently orbiting.

A protoplanet is a large planet embryo that originated...you know what?  Here's the description on Wikipedia and you can figure it out, because I sure can't.

Vesta is the second-largest and second-most-massive object in the asteroid belt behind Ceres.  It has an elliptical shape with diameters from 550 km x 462 km and its year is 3.6 Earth-years.

In September 2012, Dawn left Vesta and is now in orbit around Ceres.