Stardust | JPL

+ View the NASA Portal

+ Stardust Fact Sheet (PDF)

+ Aerogel Brochure (PDF)

+ Acronym List

+ Frequently Asked Questions

+ Weekly Status Reports

+ Stardust Press Kit Now Available (PDF file 151K)

Stardust Flyby Images of Comet Wild 2

Jan 6, 2004 - "On January 2, comet Wild 2 gave up its particles but it did not do so without a fight," said Stardust Project Manager Tom Duxbury of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "Our data indicates we flew through sheets of cometary particles that jostled the spacecraft and that on at least 10 occasions the first layer of our shielding was breached. Glad we had a couple more layers of the stuff."


	Stardust Image - Comet Wild 2

Jan 2, 2004 - Team Stardust, NASA's first dedicated sample return mission to a comet, passed a huge milestone today by successfully navigating through the particle and gas-laden coma around comet Wild 2 (pronounced "Vilt-2"). During the hazardous traverse, the spacecraft flew within 240 kilometers (149 miles) of the comet, catching samples of comet particles and scoring detailed pictures of Wild 2's pockmarked surface.

"Things couldn't have worked better in a fairy tale," said Tom Duxbury, Stardust project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

"These images are better than we had hoped for in our wildest dreams," said Ray Newburn of JPL, a co-investigator for Stardust. "They will help us better understand the mechanisms that drive conditions on comets."

Stardust Sets New Distance Record For Solar-Powered Spacecraft

On April 18, 2002, Stardust, NASA's Discovery mission to collect dust from a comet's nucleus, reached its farthest distance from the Sun at 2.72 AU (253 million miles or 407 million kilometers). This is the farthest distance ever reached by a solar-powered spacecraft.

Stardust Swings By Home Before Journey to Catch Comet Dust

NASA's Stardust spacecraft, successfully completed its first solar orbit when it flew by the Earth on January 15, 2001. Closest approach distance was approximately 6012 kilometers (3721 miles) at approximately 11:13 UTC (04:13 MST, 03:13 PST).