Stardust Status Report

January 26, 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: