The Dawn probe is launched by NASA.

The Dawn space probe was launched by NASA on 27 September 2007 and is controlled by its Jet Propulsion laboratory of the California Institute of Technology. Its mission was to primarily study two protoplanets in the asteroid belt called, Vesta and Ceres. Dawn is currently orbiting around Ceres after arriving there in March 2015. Prior to that it spent 14 months from July 2011 orbiting Vesta. It will remain in orbit around Ceres until the conclusion of its mission, probably sometime in 2017. The primary mission aim is to address is the role that water might have had in determining the evolution of the planets. Both of these dwarf plants are very icy.