Stardust Status Report

August 3, 2001

There were two Deep Space Network (DSN) Trakcing passes this week and all subsystems are performing normally. These passes have been kept simple and at off hours in anticipation of the Genesis launch planned this week.

The Cometary and Interstellar Dust Analyzer (CIDA) instrument continues to observe the interstellar dust stream with an optimal spacecraft attitude when not in communication with Earth.

The older Silicon Graphics Onyx computer in the Spacecraft Test Laboratory will be upgraded by replacing the 200 Mhz processor with a 250 Mhz processor within the next month. There are still major issues with this old computer with replacement options being explored.

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