STARDUST Status Report

June 30, 2000

There was one Deep Space Network (DSN) tracking pass during the past week for STARDUST cruise activity. All subsystems onboard the spacecraft are performing normally.

A Dust Flux Instrument Meeting was held at the University of Chicago on the 22nd and 23rd of June. An agreement was reached on the operational use of the instrument, particularly at encounter, and the running of one more test this coming August.

The next Navigation Camera sequence is being planned for the period of July 28th to August 1st. The CCD heaters will be turned on and monitored with periodic calibration lamp images being taken.

The STARDUST Outreach team made presentations at the NASA Educators Workshop in Pomona, CA, where the focus was on Native American communities, and also to the NASA Small Bodies Mission Workshop during the VITS, NASA Goddard Educators Workshop.

In Technology Transfer, an MOU was signed between JPL and Harvard University School of Architecture. Harvard will explore potential architectural use and design of gradient aerogel.

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