Stardust Status Report

July 19, 2002

There were three Deep Space Network (DSN) communications passes in the past week and all subsystems are normal. Commands for a test of the navigation mirror rate were reviewed and will be sent to the spacecraft next week.

New configuration files were successfully sent to the spacecraft, updating the knowledge of the Earth and Sun positions. These files are periodically updated with the latest trajectory data to provide better pointing knowledge.

The team completed a detailed review of the Comet Wild 2 encounter fault tree, an analysis of all the possible complications that could arise during the Comet Wild 2 encounter. This is an exercise to identify and fix any potential problems in advance.

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