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Space Topics: StardustMission Facts
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 Animation of Stardust's flyby of Wild 2 This animation is composed of 24 frames captured by Stardust as it flew by Wild 2 on January 2, 2004. Credit: NASA / JPL / Emily Lakdawalla |
Launch: February 7, 1999 at 21:04:15 UTC
Interstellar dust collection: February-May 2000
Earth flyby and gravity assist: January 15, 2001
Interstellar dust collection: August-December 2002. In
total, Stardust's aerogel collector spent 195 days scooping up interstellar
dust grains.
Asteroid Annefrank flyby: November 2, 2002, at a distance
of 3,100 kilometers (1,900 miles).
Aerogel collector deployed for Wild-2 encounter: December
26, 2003
Comet Wild-2 coma entry: December 31, 2003
Comet Wild-2 flyby: January 2, 2004. The spacecraft
sailed past the 5-kilometer (3.3 mile) wide comet at a distance of
240 kilometers (150 miles) at a relative speed of 22,023 kilometers
per hour (13,684 miles per hour).
Aerogel collector retracted and stowed: January 2,
2004
Sample capsule return: January 15, 2006, in the Utah
Test & Training Range
Spacecraft
Spacecraft mass:
Total: 385 kilograms (848 pounds)
Main spacecraft: 254 kilograms (560 pounds)
Sample return capsule: 46 kilograms (101 pounds)
Fuel: 85 kilograms (187 pounds)
Spacecraft description:
Spacecraft bus: 1.7 meters (5.4 feet) long and 0.66
meters (1.5 feet) on each side.
Solar arrays: 4.8 meters (15.9 feet) tip-to-tip
Sample return capsule: 0.8 meters (32 inches) diameter,
0.5 meters (21 inches) high
Cost:
$168.4 million (not including the cost of the launch vehicle), with $128.4
million for the spacecraft and $40 million for operations
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