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STARDUST Update - June 12, 1998


                           STARDUST Status Report
                                June 12, 1998
                                 Ken Atkins
                          STARDUST Project Manager

Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations (ATLO) activities: This week marks the
first full-fledged test of the flight system's components all working
together. The Stardust Team completed part I of what we are calling System
Performance Test (SPT) #1. In part I we aimed at testing the spacecraft's
reception of command sequences and its proper, correct response during the
launch phase of the mission. This test included the command sequencing and
data responses for lift-off, separation from the launch vehicle, de-spin
after separation from the launch rocket, deployment of solar arrays and the
proper attitude control functioning. It's great to report the test was very
successful and completed in less time than scheduled. We will now be engaged
in making some changes and reconfiguring for part II of this very important
test series.

As you've noticed, if you've been following the action through our TV Cam in
the environmentally-controlled clean room, we have re-opened the spacecraft
to permit the reinstallation of the flight Command & Data Handling (C&DH)
unit and the Power Control Assembly (PCA). These key units have been getting
some rework done on electronics while their nearly-identical "understudies"
have been on the spacecraft. STARDUST will be in this state for about two
weeks as C&DH and PCA complete some retesting and are installed. Then part
II of the System Performance Test will be done.

STARDUST team members participated in another planning session with the
launch vehicle folks at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. These
meetings are crucial to ensuring a smooth flow of activity next fall when we
take STARDUST to the Cape to meet its Boeing Delta rocket. As
familiarization and training.for that exciting time, the team participated
in the successful launch of a Norwegian communication satellite aboard a
Delta.

More than 220,000 names have been collected so far for the second microchip.
In case you're wondering, the names will be electronically etched onto a
fingernail-size silicon chip at JPL's Microdevices Laboratory. Writing on
the microchip is so small that about 80 letters would equal the width of a
human hair. Once inscribed, the names can be read only with the aid of an
electron microscope. We hope to exhibit the names in a major museum after
the comet sample returns to Earth.

For more information on the STARDUST mission - the first ever comet sample
return mission - please visit the STARDUST home page:

http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov