http://www.jpl.nasa.gov : NASA Spacecraft Burns for Another Comet Flyby
...November 22, 2010
STARDUST Launch Artist rendering of Stardust-NExT spacecraft. Image credit: NASA/JPL
PASADENA, Calif. -- Eighty-six days out from its appointment with a comet, NASA's Stardust
spacecraft fired its thrusters to help refine its flight path. The Stardust-NExT mission will fly
past comet Tempel 1 next Valentine's Day (Feb. 14, 2011). It will perform NASA's second comet flyby within four months.
"One comet down, one to go," said Tim Larson, project manager for both the Stardust-NExT mission and the EPOXI mission -- which successfully flew past comet Hartley 2 on Nov. 4.
The trajectory correction maneuver, which adjusts the spacecraft's flight path, began at 2 p.m. EST (11:00 a.m. PST) on Nov. 20. The Stardust spacecraft's rockets fired for 9 seconds, consumed about 41 grams (1.4 ounces) of fuel and changed the spacecraft's speed by all of 0.33 meters per second (about 0.7 miles per hour). The maneuver was designed to target a point in space 200 kilometers (124 miles) from comet Tempel 1.
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