[meteorite-list] NASA's Deep Impact Spacecraft Eyes the Future

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 1 Dec 2011 14:16:06 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201112012216.pB1MG6vD017673_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-367

NASA's Deep Impact Spacecraft Eyes the Future
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
December 01, 2011

Deep Impact Mission Status

PASADENA, Calif. - NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft completed a 140-second
firing of its onboard rocket motors on Thursday, Nov. 24. The rocket
burn was performed to keep the venerable comet hunter's options open for
yet another exploration of a solar system small body.

"The burn was right on the money. Not bad for a spacecraft whose prime
mission successfully concluded in 2005," said Tim Larson, Deep Impact
project manager from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,
Calif. "We've logged a lot of miles and at least one comet flyby since
our '05 encounter with comet Tempel 1. With this burn, we keep the door
open for Deep Impact logging even more miles and exploring more small
worlds before all is said and done."

Last Thursday, Larson and his Deep Impact team watched from their
mission support area at JPL as their spacecraft began the maneuver at 4
p.m. PST (7 p.m. EST). The spacecraft's two-minute, 20-second burn
changed its velocity by 19.7 mph (8.8 meters per second). If NASA
approves a third mission extension for Deep Impact, a second rocket burn
will be executed next fall.

Launched in January 2005, Deep Impact traveled about 268 million miles
(431 million kilometers) to the vicinity of comet Tempel 1. On July 3,
2005, the spacecraft deployed an impactor that was essentially "run
over" by the nucleus of comet Tempel 1 on July 4. Sixteen days after
comet encounter, the Deep Impact team placed the spacecraft on a
trajectory to fly past Earth in late December 2007. This extended
mission of the Deep Impact spacecraft culminated in the successful flyby
of comet Hartley 2 on Nov. 4, 2010.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena,
manages the Deep Impact mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate,
Washington. The mission is part of the Discovery Program managed at
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The spacecraft
was built for NASA by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo.

For more information about Deep Impact, please visit:
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/deepimpact .

DC Agle 818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
agle at jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
Dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov

2011-367
Received on Thu 01 Dec 2011 05:16:06 PM PST