Stardust completes asteroid flyby
Posted: Sun, Nov 3, 2002, 10:05 PM ET (0305 GMT)
NASA's Stardust spacecraft flew by an asteroid late Friday night en route to its main destination. Stardust flew within 3,300 kilometers of the asteroid 5535 Annefrank at 11:50 pm EST Friday (0450 GMT Saturday). According to a JPL status report, the flyby went by without any problems, with the spacecraft tracking the asteroid for 30 minutes during closest approach at a relative speed of seven kilometers a second. Images taken during the Annefrank flyby are being transmitted back to Earth for analysis during the coming week; none have been released yet. NASA planned to use the flyby of Annefrank, a main-belt asteroid about four kilometers across, as a dress rehearsal for the spacecraft's primary mission, a flyby of the comet Wild 2 in January 2004. If all goes well, Stardust will collect samples of dust as it flies by Wild 2 and return them to Earth in 2006.
NASA's Stardust spacecraft flew by an asteroid late Friday night en route to its main destination. Stardust flew within 3,300 kilometers of the asteroid 5535 Annefrank at 11:50 pm EST Friday (0450 GMT Saturday). According to a JPL status report, the flyby went by without any problems, with the spacecraft tracking the asteroid for 30 minutes during closest approach at a relative speed of seven kilometers a second. Images taken during the Annefrank flyby are being transmitted back to Earth for analysis during the coming week; none have been released yet. NASA planned to use the flyby of Annefrank, a main-belt asteroid about four kilometers across, as a dress rehearsal for the spacecraft's primary mission, a flyby of the comet Wild 2 in January 2004. If all goes well, Stardust will collect samples of dust as it flies by Wild 2 and return them to Earth in 2006.
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