[meteorite-list] NASA's Comet Tale Draws to a Successful Close in Utah Desert

[Norm Lehrman]

Fantastic!  If you haven't been to the NASA website
yet, go there!  There's streaming video replays of
Stardust's re-entry and recovery, great interviews,
particularly with Brownlee.  I found it all really
emotional----

Congrats to all involved,
Norm
Http://TektiteSource.com

P.S., notice how much the recovery capsule looks like
an Australite core in profile?  No accident.




--- Ron Baalke <baalke at zagami.jpl.nasa.gov> wrote:

> 
> MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
> JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
> CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
> NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
> PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
> http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
> 
> D.C. Agle (818) 354-5011
> Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
> 
> Erica Hupp/Merrilee Fellows (202) 358-1237/(818)
> 393-0754
> NASA Headquarters, Washington
> 
> 2006-009
> 
> NASA's Comet Tale Draws to a Successful Close in
> Utah Desert
> January 15, 2006
> 
> NASA's Stardust sample return mission returned
> safely to Earth 
> when the capsule carrying cometary and interstellar
> particles 
> successfully touched down at 2:10 a.m. Pacific time
> (3:10 a.m. 
> Mountain time) in the desert salt flats of the U.S.
> Air Force 
> Utah Test and Training Range.
> 
> "Ten years of planning and seven years of flight
> operations 
> were realized early this morning when we
> successfully picked 
> up our return capsule off of the desert floor in
> Utah," said 
> Tom Duxbury, Stardust project manager at NASA's Jet
> Propulsion 
> Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "The Stardust project
> has delivered 
> to the international science community material that
> has been 
> unaltered since the formation of our solar system."
> 
> Stardust released its sample return capsule at 9:57
> p.m. Pacific 
> time (10:57 p.m. Mountain time) last night. The
> capsule entered 
> the atmosphere four hours later at 1:57 a.m. Pacific
> time (2:57 
> a.m. Mountain time). The drogue and main parachutes
> deployed 
> at 2:00 and 2:05 a.m. Pacific time, respectively
> (3:00 and 3:05 
> a.m. Mountain time).
> 
> "I have been waiting for this day since the early
> 1980s when 
> Deputy Principal Investigator Dr. Peter Tsou of JPL
> and I designed 
> a mission to collect comet dust," said Dr. Don
> Brownlee, Stardust 
> principal investigator from the University of
> Washington, Seattle. 
> "To see the capsule safely back on its home planet
> is a thrilling 
> accomplishment."
> 
> The sample return capsule's science canister and its
> cargo of 
> comet and interstellar dust particles will be stowed
> inside 
> a special aluminum carrying case to await transfer
> to the Johnson 
> Space Center, Houston, where it will be opened.
> NASA's Stardust 
> mission traveled 2.88 billion miles during its
> seven-year round-trip 
> odyssey. Scientists believe these precious samples
> will help 
> provide answers to fundamental questions about
> comets and the 
> origins of the solar system.
> 
> NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.,
> manages 
> the Stardust mission for NASA's Science Mission
> Directorate, 
> Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver,
> developed 
> and operated the spacecraft.
> 
> For information about the Stardust mission on the
> Web, visit 
> www.nasa.gov/stardust . For information about NASA
> and agency 
> programs on the Web, visit http://www.nasa.gov/home
> .
> 
> 
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