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MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
STARDUST MISSION STATUS
April 6, 1999
It's not a space race, but NASA's comet-bound Stardust
spacecraft, launched in February, has now pulled ahead of two
other NASA spacecraft launched earlier on trips to Mars.
Stardust, traveling fast enough to cross the United States
in less than two minutes, last week passed the slightly slower-
moving Mars Climate Orbiter and
Mars Polar Lander spacecraft. At
this point in their journeys, all three spacecraft are in the
same vicinity of our solar system, each traveling on a trajectory
that will reach Mars' orbit, but only two will stop there.
Stardust will keep traveling on its egg-shaped trajectory to
eventually meet up in 2004 with Comet Wild-2, where it will
collect samples of comet dust for return to Earth in 2006.
Today, Stardust is traveling at a speed of more than 114,000
kilometers per hour (about 70,000 mph). Mars Climate Orbiter is
traveling at a speed of about 100,750 kilometers per hour (about
62,600 mph) and will enter orbit around the red planet in
September. Mars Polar Lander, traveling a speed of 106,000
kilometers per hour (about 65,800 mph), is due to land on Mars in
December. For the Mars spacecraft, slower is better, because
less energy will be required to brake the spacecraft when its
time for them to land or enter orbit around Mars.
Stardust is roughly between the two other spacecraft, with
Mars Climate Orbiter more than 7 million kilometers (4.3 million
miles) starboard of Stardust, and Mars Polar Lander more than 16
million kilometers (about 10 million miles) to Stardust's
portside. Their relative trajectories can be seen at:
http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/scnow.html .
Last Updated: November 26, 2003
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