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Orbits around Ceres This figure illustrates two of Dawn's operational orbits around Ceres. The spacecraft has been operating in the outer one, XMO5, since June 2017. It will fly to the inner one, XMO6, to make new observations in May. (Next month we will see the probe's flight path between the two orbits.) The spacecraft will revolve counterclockwise, as seen from this vantage point, and the Sun would be far to the right. XMO6 is also shown in the figure below. NASA / JPL-Caltech