Stardust Status Report 26 July 2001
There were numerous Deep Space Network (DSN) passes in the past week,
and all subsystems are performing normally. Since the successful completion
of the Earth Gravity Assist (EGA) and receipt of the navigation camera moon
images, the team’s activities are returning to normal. They are focusing on
analysis by navigation and science teams, and the spacecraft team is working
on several flight software patches. Planning is underway for TCM-6, the EGA
cleanup maneuver, scheduled for February 14. Preliminary estimates are for a
0.7 meters/second burn. Stardust continues to have daily contacts to provide
tracking data for the TCM-6 design. The weekly contact cruise mode will resume
the week of 26 March. Ed Hirst, the Stardust Mission Planner, did a live
interview about Stardust on the Telemundo Spanish language channel on January 22.
For more information on the STARDUST mission – the first ever comet
sample return mission – please visit the STARDUST home page:
