STARDUST Status Report

November 7, 1997

Ken Atkins
STARDUST Project Manager

The Stardust Project showed good metrics on cost, schedule variances and earned-value through September. The financial transition to FY98 was smooth.

On the Flight Computer front: Two STARDUST flight microprocessor boards are being delivered today, November 7!!! The Command Computer is progressing through a series of interface tests.

Aerogel update: Two options are available for controlling final tile dimensions to match the collector holes and provide good holding compression on all sides: 1) adjusting the mold size or 2) controlling the shrinkage in the liquid-removal process. 100 interstellar molds were received this week and another "run" of the production process was completed.. The team now feels able to make transparent, multilayer aerogel on a consistent basis.

Sample Return Capsule Heat Shield:. The flight heatshield has been accepted and delivered to Denver.

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/