STARDUST Status Report

March 31, 2000

There were two Deep Space Network (DSN) passes during the past week. All subsystems onboard the spacecraft are performing normally.

The remainder of the Navigation Camera images were transmitted to Earth. An analysis of the images is in progress.

The aerogel grid was successfully moved another 10 degrees in the open direction. This will ensure the grid remains perpendicular to the interstellar dust stream.

The Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) team participated in the NASA / JPL Solar System Exploration Program Teachers Workshop, involving over 30 teachers nationwide. This was the first meeting after combining the E/PO efforts of STARDUST, Galileo and Cassini.

Data Management and Archive made its first formal delivery of data to the NASA Planetary Data System (PDS) for permanent archive and distribution to the NASA science community. This first delivery included all pre-launch Navigation Camera calibration data, over 2 gigabytes of data, provided on the new DVD media. STARDUST is the first project to use the new DVD media for data delivery to PDS.

For more information on the STARDUST mission - the first ever comet sample return mission - please visit the STARDUST home page: