NASA Stardust Status Report December 16, 2005

All subsystems on the STARDUST spacecraft continue to operate normally as the spacecraft travels towards Earth.

One month remains until Earth Return on January 15, 2006

The project successfully completed its final Operational and Recovery Testing, ending with a full drop test of a capsule and helicopter recovery at the Utah Test and Training Range.

Information on the present position and orbits of the Stardust spacecraft and comet Wild 2 may be found on the “Where Is Stardust Right Now?” web page located at:

http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/scnow.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 .