STARDUST RETURNS

NASA launched the spacecraft Stardust on February 6, 1999. Its 7-year mission included 3 orbits around the sun, a swing by Earth, and a comet flyby before returning to Earth. It collected interstellar dust on two of its solar loops. It collected cometary dust from its flyby of Comet 81P/Wild 2. Its 3 billion mile journey ended on January 15, 2006 when its capsule parachuted to the ground for a gentle landing in the Utah Test and Training Range at 4:12 a.m. (CST).

The Sample Return Capsule was traveling at 28,580 miles per hour (46,000 kilometers per hour) until it was 62 miles above Earth. In four minutes, it slowed to just a few hundred miles per hour. In thirteen minutes, the capsule completed its reentry with a safe landing. The capsule was taken from Utah to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas where scientists began studying the samples of cometary dust. The samples will be collected and sent to investigators all over the world.