[meteorite-list] NASA's Comet Tale Draws to a Successful Close in Utah Desert

From: Norm Lehrman <nlehrman_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun Jan 15 11:54:38 2006
Message-ID: <20060115165436.15531.qmail_at_web81012.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

Fantastic! If you haven't been to the NASA website
yet, go there! There's streaming video replays of
Stardust's re-entry and recovery, great interviews,
particularly with Brownlee. I found it all really
emotional----

Congrats to all involved,
Norm
Http://TektiteSource.com

P.S., notice how much the recovery capsule looks like
an Australite core in profile? No accident.




--- Ron Baalke <baalke_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov> wrote:

>
> MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
> JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
> CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
> NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
> PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
> http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
>
> D.C. Agle (818) 354-5011
> Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
>
> Erica Hupp/Merrilee Fellows (202) 358-1237/(818)
> 393-0754
> NASA Headquarters, Washington
>
> 2006-009
>
> NASA's Comet Tale Draws to a Successful Close in
> Utah Desert
> January 15, 2006
>
> NASA's Stardust sample return mission returned
> safely to Earth
> when the capsule carrying cometary and interstellar
> particles
> successfully touched down at 2:10 a.m. Pacific time
> (3:10 a.m.
> Mountain time) in the desert salt flats of the U.S.
> Air Force
> Utah Test and Training Range.
>
> "Ten years of planning and seven years of flight
> operations
> were realized early this morning when we
> successfully picked
> up our return capsule off of the desert floor in
> Utah," said
> Tom Duxbury, Stardust project manager at NASA's Jet
> Propulsion
> Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "The Stardust project
> has delivered
> to the international science community material that
> has been
> unaltered since the formation of our solar system."
>
> Stardust released its sample return capsule at 9:57
> p.m. Pacific
> time (10:57 p.m. Mountain time) last night. The
> capsule entered
> the atmosphere four hours later at 1:57 a.m. Pacific
> time (2:57
> a.m. Mountain time). The drogue and main parachutes
> deployed
> at 2:00 and 2:05 a.m. Pacific time, respectively
> (3:00 and 3:05
> a.m. Mountain time).
>
> "I have been waiting for this day since the early
> 1980s when
> Deputy Principal Investigator Dr. Peter Tsou of JPL
> and I designed
> a mission to collect comet dust," said Dr. Don
> Brownlee, Stardust
> principal investigator from the University of
> Washington, Seattle.
> "To see the capsule safely back on its home planet
> is a thrilling
> accomplishment."
>
> The sample return capsule's science canister and its
> cargo of
> comet and interstellar dust particles will be stowed
> inside
> a special aluminum carrying case to await transfer
> to the Johnson
> Space Center, Houston, where it will be opened.
> NASA's Stardust
> mission traveled 2.88 billion miles during its
> seven-year round-trip
> odyssey. Scientists believe these precious samples
> will help
> provide answers to fundamental questions about
> comets and the
> origins of the solar system.
>
> NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.,
> manages
> the Stardust mission for NASA's Science Mission
> Directorate,
> Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver,
> developed
> and operated the spacecraft.
>
> For information about the Stardust mission on the
> Web, visit
> www.nasa.gov/stardust . For information about NASA
> and agency
> programs on the Web, visit http://www.nasa.gov/home
> .
>
>
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Received on Sun 15 Jan 2006 11:54:36 AM PST