STARDUST Status Report

August 25, 2000

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

During the only DSN pass, the Navigation Camera CCD heater was successfully powered off and a few images were downlinked. The heater had been on for the past week. During the week, the CCD temperature started at -34 degrees C and reached a steady state value of approximately 7 degrees C. Every few hours an image of the calibration lamp was taken to monitor image quality changes, if any.

The initial results are encouraging in that definite small changes are seen in the first few images where the temperature was still below freezing. All remaining images will be transmitted in early September at which time final quality assessment will be made.

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