NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, in orbit around the asteroid Ceres, has died quietly, the space agency announced on Thursday. 

Dawn missed its appointed check-in on Wednesday.  Mission managers concluded that the propellant for its thrusters had run dry, and Dawn could no longer control its orientation.  Its antenna turned away from Earth, and its radio signal was lost forever. 

It was an expected end to the mission, although the spacecraft lasted two years longer than originally planned. 

Launched in 2007, Dawn has been sending home close-up views of Ceres and Vesta — the largest asteroids in the belt between Mars and Jupiter — as well as clues to the building blocks of the solar system’s planets.