Subject line: Minor bodies of the Solar System

Responsibility of the mission: NASA

Date of launch: February 7th, 1999

End of mission: March 24th, 2011

 

Description

Stardust is the fourth mission of the NASA Discovery programme, and the first mission whose only focus is on exploring a comet: Wild 2. The mission departed in February 1999 from Cape Canaveral with a Delta II vector rocket and following a four-year journey – during which the probe performed a flyby of the 5535 Annefrank asteroid at a 3300 km distance – on January 2nd, 2004 STARDUST reached the Wild2 Comet.

The mission completed its first cycle of observation and collection of samples in 2006, but it was extended in 2011 with the purpose of studying the Comet Tempel 1, previously observed in the Deep Impact mission. The encounter with the celestial body happened of February 14th, 2011 and the mission ended on March 24th, 2011, when the probe ran out of fuel.

 

Scientific goals

The primary goal of the mission was to collect and analyse samples of carbon dust coming from the comet Wild 2, by using a special material with extremely low density known as aerogel, similar to a big tennis racket.

STARDUST brought back to Earth samples of interstellar dust and fragments of dust coming from outside our Solar System, which are useful to study the evolution of the Sun and the other planets of the Solar System.

‣ News

THURSDAY 23 MARCH 2023

SPEI SATELLES: A SPACE MISSION TO BRING A MESSAGE OF HOPE TO ALL HUMANITY ‣

The space mission, its genesis, its details and its prospects, will be communicated at 10.30 on 27 March, the third anniversary of the Statio Orbis and the tenth of the pontificate of Pope Francis - Sala Marconi, Piazza Pia 3 Rome MORE...

WEDNESDAY 15 MARCH 2023

ITALIAN PRESIDENT, SERGIO MATTARELLA, VISITS THE “LUIGI BROGLIO” SPACE CENTER IN MALINDI ‣

President Mattarella's first Official Visit to Kenya. Watch the video on AsiTV MORE...

TUESDAY 14 MARCH 2023

The 13th Farinella Prize ‣

The prize is assigned during the EPSC annual meetings MORE...

FRIDAY 03 MARCH 2023

PRISMA in support of the ESA EO Africa initiative ‣

The ASI hyperspectral satellite acquires in Kenya for the HyRELIEF project funded by ESA MORE...

WEDNESDAY 01 MARCH 2023

Agreement between the Italian Ministry of Culture and the Italian Space Agency for heritage study and protection ‣

“Eyes” in space to protect  our national cultural heritage. Cultural heritage data collection kicks off through the COSMO-SkyMed system developed by ASI in cooperation with the Ministry of Defense MORE...