Claim: Ceres is a dwarf planet.

Dawn is a space probe launched by NASA in September 2007 with the mission of studying two of the three known protoplanets of the asteroid belt , Vesta and Ceres . It is currently in orbit about its second target , the dwarf planet Ceres . Dawn is the first spacecraft to orbit two extraterrestrial bodies , the first spacecraft to visit either Vesta or Ceres , and also the first to visit a dwarf planet , arriving at Ceres in March 2015 , a few months before New Horizons flew by Pluto in July 2015 .   Dawn entered Vesta orbit on July 16 , 2011 , and completed a 14-month survey mission before leaving for Ceres in late 2012 . Dawn entered Ceres orbit on March 6 , 2015 , and is predicted to remain in orbit perpetually after the conclusion of its mission . NASA considered , but decided against , a proposal to visit a third target .   The Dawn mission is managed by NASA 's Jet Propulsion Laboratory , with spacecraft components contributed by European partners from the Netherlands , Italy and Germany . It is the first NASA exploratory mission to use ion propulsion , which enabled it to enter and leave the orbit of multiple celestial bodies . Previous multi-target missions using conventional drives , such as the Voyager program , were restricted to flybys .