Delta 2 Launches Comet Nucleus Tour Spacecraft

A Boeing Delta 2 7425 rocket successfully launched NASA's Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR) spacecraft from Cape Canaveral, pad SLC 17A at 0647:41 UTC on July 3. The spacecraft was placed into an elliptical Earth orbit, where it will remain until mission operators put the spacecraft on a path toward at least two comets.

CONTOUR will remain in low Earth orbit until 0846 UTC August 15 when it will be boosted for 50 seconds out of Earth’s orbit into a helio (sun) orbit. CONTOUR will return to the vicinity of Earth four times during the next four years, with the first fly-by scheduled for 15 August 2003. CONTOUR's primary targets are comets Encke, on 12 November 2003, and Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 in June 2006. CONTOUR will fly as close as 100 km (54 nmi) to the center of each comet. The spacecraft’s main camera, the Contour Remote Imager/Spectrograph, will provide high-resolution images showing features on the nucleus as small as 4 m (13 ft) across. Following observation of those two comets, CONTOUR's mission team will be able to select a "new" comet should the opportunity arise.

The US$159 million CONTOUR mission will study the nucleus of comets to further the scientific community's understanding of the characteristics and behavior of these objects. The CONTOUR mission plans to take close-up photographs of at least two comets over the next four years.

The 970 kg (2138 lbm) spacecraft was designed and built by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL). The octagon shaped solar-powered spacecraft is protected by a  254 cm (10-inch) thick, layered dust shield made of Nextel and Kevlar fabric.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., provided the neutral gas/ion mass spectrometer. Von Hoerner & Sulger, GmbH, Schwetzingen, Germany, built the dust analyzer. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., is providing navigation and Deep Space Network (DSN) support. Dr. Joseph Veverka, Contour's principal investigator from Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., leads a science team of co-investigators from universities, industry and government agencies in the U.S. and Europe. CONTOUR is the sixth mission of NASA's Discovery Program.

Stardust, launched in 1999, should fly-by near a comet in 2005, returning to Earth with dust samples in 2006. Rosetta is scheduled for launch in January 2003 and is expected to orbit around a comet and drop a mini-lander on its surface. Deep Impact, is scheduled for launch in 2004 and impact with a comet in 2005.

Copyright 2001 - Andrews Space & Technology
Andrews Space & Technology Privacy Statement and Copyright Information

SPACEandTECH Digest is a weekly roundup of the latest industry news of interest to the space professional. SPACEandTECH Flash! is an internet push service offered by Andrews Space & Technology to bring the latest on orders, launches, and important breaking news to your desktop. SPACEandTECH Digest and SPACEandTECH Flash! are part of the Andrews Space & Technology www.spaceandtech.com website, a website designed to serve the information needs of the space industry.

If you would like to subscribe to the SPACEandTECH Flash! (currently a free service), contact the www.spaceandtech.com Editor-in-Chief, Joe Hopkins, at editor@spaceandtech.com