Stardust Capsule returns to Earth

At 5:10 a.m. Eastern time, Stardust's return capsule landed in the Utah Test and Training Range. The NASA TV image above shows an infrared view of a helicopter on the ground at the capsule landing site. The capsule contains cometary and interstellar samples gathered by the mission.


Stardust is the first U.S. space mission dedicated solely to the exploration of a comet, and the first robotic mission designed to return extraterrestrial material from outside the orbit of the Moon.

In order to meet up with comet Wild 2, the spacecraft made three loops around the Sun. On the second loop, its trajectory intersected the comet. During the meeting, Stardust performed a variety of tasks including reporting counts of comet particles encountered by the spacecraft with the Dust Flux Monitor, and real-time analyses of the compositions of these particles and volatiles taken by the Comet and Interstellar Dust Analyzer. Using a substance called aerogel, Stardust captured these samples and stored them for safe keep on its long journey back to Earth. This silica-based material has been inserted within the Aerogel Collector Grid, which is similar to a large tennis racket.

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