Stardust Status Report

September 28, 2001

There was one Deep Space Network tracking pass in the past week and all of Stardust's subsystems are performing normally. New commands were sent to the spacecraft and will go active this weekend.

The Encounter Action Item Review was completed for the action items that resulted from the workshop held in May of this year. Thirteen of the thirty-three action items have been completed, and many of the remaining items' action plans have been drafted, and will be completed during the next six months.

Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) has recorded all of its activities this year in the NASA EDCAT's (Education Evaluation System) web site as required by NASA E/PO.

The Imaging Science Lead supported the very successful Deep Space 1 flyby of Comet Borrelly as part of the DS1 team that produced models of cometary dust production and surface brightness. This was an excellent opportunity to obtain operational experience, since the same functions will be required as Stardust approaches Comet Wild 2 in 2004.

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