Stardust Status Report

July 11, 2003

The Stardust team had eight periods of communication with the spacecraft using the Deep Space Network in the past week. Telemetry relayed from the spacecraft indicates it is healthy and all subsystems continue to operate normally.

Preparations for the next Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM-9) are underway. This TCM is a small followup adjustment to last month's Deep Space Maneuver 3. TCM-9 will be a 1 meter/second burn and because the burn direction is very close to Earth point, the project has decided to use this maneuver as an additional opportunity for measuring the impact of small forces both before and after the burn. Since the burn direction will be at Earth point, the best two-way doppler data will be obtained, and still be well within the propellant margins. TCM-9 is scheduled for July 16th.

Information on the present position and orbits of the Stardust spacecraft and Comet Wild 2 may be found on the "Where Is Stardust Right Now?" web page located at:

http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/scnow.html

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