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STARDUST Update - August 28, 1998

                           STARDUST Status Report
                               August 28, 1998
                                 Ken Atkins
                          STARDUST Project Manager

The ATLO team completed the electromagnetic (EM) testing, stray
voltage testing,  and solar array deployment shock tests. No radiated
emissions problems were observed in the EM tests.  That means the
electrical system will be "quiet" without static causing problems with
other things on board.  The solar array test was to exercise the
components that allow the arrays to unfold automatically in space. 
Everything worked fine!  After the testing, the solar arrays were
removed and the spacecraft moved to its handling fixture to start
preparations for system thermal vacuum test (STV).  That's the picture
on the webcam at this writing.   The flight system remains very healthy
with no functional problems going into environmental test.

Launch Vehicle:  You may have seen on the news that the inaugural
flight of the Delta III rocket failed on August 26.   Boeing has
initiated a failure investigation.  STARDUST is not manifested to ride
on the Delta III.  We're slated for the Delta II, a rocket system with
more than one hundred successful launchings.  However, even though
STARDUST is manifested on the Delta II launch vehicle,  Boeing and NASA
must consider and review everything about the Delta II in the context
of this failure to ensure exoneration of all Delta II elements before
allowing continuation of the Delta II launch schedule. Seven Delta II
launches are scheduled ahead of STARDUST.
 
A new STARDUST fact sheet was added to the Web Site at:

http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/welcome/factsheetnew.pdf

University of Washington's Prof. Don Brownlee, the STARDUST Principal
Investigator, completed "STARDUST: The Story", a background account of
how the project came about.  The story was added to the Captain Comet
(Kids) page at:
   
http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/captaincomet/storyofstardust.html

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

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