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STARDUST Update - June 11, 1999

                       STARDUST STATUS REPORT
                           June 11, 1999

There were no communications with the spacecraft since the
last status report.   With only one pass per week, there can be
occasions when there is more than one week between passes, which is the
current situation.

As the spacecraft recedes from Earth, making communications distances
larger and with communication rates dropping, High Gain Antenna (HGA)
commands are being verified in the Spacecraft Test Laboratory at
Lockheed Martin Astronautics (LMA).  The first test of the HGA is
expected in late June and the HGA will then be used during the first pass
of each monthly sequence to obtain high telemetry rates needed to bring
back stored science data as well as other housekeeping data which were
not brought down on previous lower rate passes.

Excellent collaborative analyses over the last two weeks between
Lockheed Martin Astronautics, the University of Chicago  and JPL led
to the resolution of the Dust Flux Monitor Instrument (DFMI) operational
anomaly.  When the internal power converter reaches temperatures above
100 degrees C, leakage currents within internal current limiter protection
circuits trip the device, shutting down the power converter.   It is
expected that DFMI will be able to operate again soon, but will have to
periodically be powered off as the operating temperature builds,
allowing time to dissipate the heat buildup.

As the spacecraft traverses around the Sun, basically pointing the
solar panels general toward the Sun, the angle between the Cometary
Interstellar Dust Analyzer (CIDA) collector and the interstellar dust 
stream becomes larger, where in early July the collector will be obscured 
from this stream by the dust shield near the launch vehicle adapter ring.  
We are currently off pointing the solar panels from the Sun about 20 degrees
to maximize the CIDA collector area exposed to the interstellar stream.
In July, when the CIDA detection area is blocked from the stream, we will 
not off point the solar panels from the Sun, which gives more power as we 
recede from the Sun.

As a result of the educational materials, experiments and presentations
provided by the STARDUST Project, planetarium foundation funding were
released to support two additional classrooms at the Longway
Planetarium in Flint, Michigan's largest planetarium seating 285
people.

JPL held its annual open house last weekend with the STARDUST Project
personnel, lead by the Outreach team,  presenting information on NASA, JPL,
STARDUST and other small body missions to thousands of excited
visitors.  A record crowd of about 55,000 people attended the JPL
Open House.

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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