Stardust Status Report

July 5, 2002

There was one Deep Space Network (DSN) tracking pass this past week on Friday, June 28, and all subsystems are performing normally.

Work continues on the Comet Wild 2 encounter Fault Tree analysis in preparations for the Critical Event Readiness Review (CERR).

A Camera Mirror rate rotation test has been developed, and will be run on the spacecraft this month. During the Comet Wild 2 flyby the mirror will be commanded at very slow rates during the early portion of the nucleus tracking.

The re-scheduled Contour launch, successfully on its way Tuesday night, will usurp the STARDUST DSN track on Saturday, July 6. The missing data will be re-transmitted during the Tuesday, July 9 DSN track. The STARDUST team welcomes the new Discovery mission to space.

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