[meteorite-list] Stardust Spacecraft Burns for Another Comet Flyby

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-390  

NASA Spacecraft Burns for Another Comet Flyby
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
November 22, 2010

PASADENA, Calif. -- Eighty-six days out from its appointment with a
comet, NASA's Stardust spacecraft fired its thrusters to help refine 
its flight path. The Stardust-NExT mission will fly past comet Tempel 1 
next Valentine's Day (Feb. 14, 2011). It will perform NASA's second 
comet flyby within four months.

"One comet down, one to go," said Tim Larson, project manager for both
the Stardust-NExT mission and the EPOXI mission -- which successfully
flew past comet Hartley 2 on Nov. 4.

The trajectory correction maneuver, which adjusts the spacecraft's
flight path, began at 2 p.m. EST (11:00 a.m. PST) on Nov. 20. The
Stardust spacecraft's rockets fired for 9 seconds, consumed about 41
grams (1.4 ounces) of fuel and changed the spacecraft's speed by all of
0.33 meters per second (about 0.7 miles per hour). The maneuver was
designed to target a point in space 200 kilometers (124 miles) from
comet Tempel 1.

Launched on Feb. 7, 1999, Stardust became the first spacecraft in 
history to collect samples from a comet (comet Wild 2), and return 
them to Earth for study. While its sample return capsule parachuted 
to Earth in January 2006, mission controllers were placing the still 
viable spacecraft on a path that would allow NASA the opportunity to 
re-use the already-proven flight system if a target of opportunity 
presented itself. In January 2007, NASA re-christened the mission 
"Stardust-NExT" (New Exploration of Tempel), and the Stardust team 
began a four-and-a-half year journey for the spacecraft to comet 
Tempel 1. This will be the second exploration of Tempel 1 by a 
spacecraft (Deep Impact).

Along with the high-resolution images of the comet's surface, 
Stardust-NExT will also measure the composition, size distribution 
and flux of dust emitted into the coma, and provide important new 
information on how Jupiter family comets evolve and how they formed 
4.6 billion years ago.

Stardust-NExT is a low-cost mission that will expand the investigation
of comet Tempel 1 initiated by NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft. JPL, a 
division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, 
manages Stardust-NExT for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, 
Washington, D.C. Joe Veverka of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., is 
the mission's principal investigator. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, 
Denver, built the spacecraft and manages day-to-day mission operations.

For more information about Stardust-NExT, please visit:
http://stardustnext.jpl.nasa.gov .

DC Agle (818) 393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
agle at jpl.nasa.gov

2010-390