spacetoday.net: Genesis adjusts course towards Earth

Posted: Thu, Aug 12, 2004, 2:48 PM ET (1848 GMT)
Genesis spacecraft illustration (NASA)

NASA's Genesis spacecraft completed a maneuver earlier this week that put the spacecraft on course to return to Earth next month. Genesis fired a set of small thrusters for 50 minutes on August 9, changing the spacecraft's speed by 1.4 meters per second. The "textbook maneuver" put the spacecraft on course to reach Earth on September 8. On that date the spacecraft will deploy a sample return capsule that will enter the Earth's atmosphere and descend by parachute over the Utah desert. Helicopters will retrieve the sample in mid-air. Genesis, launched in August 2001, studied the solar wind and collected samples of it during its three-year mission. Those samples, stored in the reentry capsule, will be studied in terrestrial laboratories to better understand the composition of the Sun.