Stardust Status Report

June 29, 2001

There were two Deep Space Network (DSN) tracking passes this week, on June 21 and 27. The spacecraft continues in excellent health, and all subsystems are performing normally.

The Cometary and Interstellar Dust Analyzer (CIDA) instrument continues to observe the interstellar dust stream with an optimal attitude, when the spacecraft is not in communication with Earth. The interstellar dust collection will end on August 13, when CIDA's target will no longer be oriented into the dust stream.

The remaining guide star images, taken with the Navigation Camera on June 8, are still being downlinked. With the downlink rate getting lower, it will take the next three DSN passes to complete the replay.

At the weekly Stardust planning meeting, the decision was made not to take the Navigation Camera image on July 3. The guide star image quality is excellent -- there is no sign of re-contamination.

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

http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov