Stardust
Nation: U.S. (76)
Objective(s): comet sample return
Spacecraft: Stardust
Spacecraft Mass: 385 kg
Mission Design and Management: NASA JPL
Launch Vehicle: Delta 7426-9.5 (no. D266)
Launch Date and Time: 7 February 1999 / 21:04:15 UT
Launch Site: ESMC / launch complex 17A

Scientific Instruments:
1) aerogel dust collectors
2) CIDA cometary and interstellar dust analyzer
3) NavCam navigation camera
4) DFM Whipple shield flux monitors

Results: Stardust is an ambitious mission, the fourth of NASA's Discovery program of low cost exploration missions (after NEAR, Mars Pathfinder, and Lunar Prospector). Its primary goal was to fly by the Comet Wild-2, collect samples of dust from the coma of the comet, and then return the samples to Earth.

During flight, Stardust also collected samples of interstellar dust grains. Scientists on Earth expect to perform detailed analyses of these samples, which represent primitive substances from the time the solar system was formed. Stardust collected the samples using a low-density microporous silica-based substance known as aerogel attached to panels on the spacecraft to "soft-catch" and preserve the cometary materials.

The spacecraft was launched into heliocentric orbit and performed midcourse corrections on 28 December 1999 and 18 January, 20 January, and 22 January 2000. Its first interstellar dust collection operation was carried out between 22 February and 1 May 2000. After approximately a year in heliocentric orbit, Stardust flew by Earth for a gravity-assist (closest approach to Earth was at 11:13 UT on 15 January 2001 at a range of 6,012 kilometers) to send it on a second sample-collection exercise between July and December 2002.

Stardust encountered Comet Wild-2 on 2 January 2004, when the spacecraft flew 236 kilometers (about 147 miles) from Wild 2. The flyby yielded the most detailed, high-resolution comet images ever.

On 15 January 2006, Stardust released its spin-stabilized Sample Return Capsule (SRC), which descended over the U.S. Air Force Test and Training Range in Utah. The sample was to be recovered by a chase aircraft, but a parachute failure sent the capsule plummeting to the desert floor. Although damaged, some good science was recovered from the aerogel collection material.

Editor's Note: This mission profile was originally published in Deep Space Chronicle: A Chronology of Deep Space and Planetary Probes 1958-2000, by Asif A. Siddiqi, NASA Monographs in Aerospace History No. 24. It has been updated to reflect recent mission events.

Stardust
Nation: U.S. (76)
Objective(s): comet sample return
Spacecraft: Stardust
Spacecraft Mass: 385 kg
Mission Design and Management: NASA JPL
Launch Vehicle: Delta 7426-9.5 (no. D266)
Launch Date and Time: 7 February 1999 / 21:04:15 UT
Launch Site: ESMC / launch complex 17A

Scientific Instruments:
1) aerogel dust collectors
2) CIDA cometary and interstellar dust analyzer
3) NavCam navigation camera
4) DFM Whipple shield flux monitors

Results: Stardust is an ambitious mission, the fourth of NASA's Discovery program of low cost exploration missions (after NEAR, Mars Pathfinder, and Lunar Prospector). Its primary goal was to fly by the Comet Wild-2, collect samples of dust from the coma of the comet, and then return the samples to Earth.

During flight, Stardust also collected samples of interstellar dust grains. Scientists on Earth expect to perform detailed analyses of these samples, which represent primitive substances from the time the solar system was formed. Stardust collected the samples using a low-density microporous silica-based substance known as aerogel attached to panels on the spacecraft to "soft-catch" and preserve the cometary materials.

The spacecraft was launched into heliocentric orbit and performed midcourse corrections on 28 December 1999 and 18 January, 20 January, and 22 January 2000. Its first interstellar dust collection operation was carried out between 22 February and 1 May 2000. After approximately a year in heliocentric orbit, Stardust flew by Earth for a gravity-assist (closest approach to Earth was at 11:13 UT on 15 January 2001 at a range of 6,012 kilometers) to send it on a second sample-collection exercise between July and December 2002.

Stardust encountered Comet Wild-2 on 2 January 2004, when the spacecraft flew 236 kilometers (about 147 miles) from Wild 2. The flyby yielded the most detailed, high-resolution comet images ever.

On 15 January 2006, Stardust released its spin-stabilized Sample Return Capsule (SRC), which descended over the U.S. Air Force Test and Training Range in Utah. The sample was to be recovered by a chase aircraft, but a parachute failure sent the capsule plummeting to the desert floor. Although damaged, some good science was recovered from the aerogel collection material.

Editor's Note: This mission profile was originally published in Deep Space Chronicle: A Chronology of Deep Space and Planetary Probes 1958-2000, by Asif A. Siddiqi, NASA Monographs in Aerospace History No. 24. It has been updated to reflect recent mission events.