The comet sampling probe Stardust has successfully returned to Earth after a 2.88 billion journey around the solar system. <\/p>\n
Racing through the entry-interface stage at 28,860mph, faster than the previous record holder \u2013 the Apollo 10 capsule, Stardust\u2019s capsule landed in Utah this morning, containing what scientists believe to be the answers to fundamental questions about the origin of the solar system.\n<\/p>\n
The capsule parachuted down to the surface at U.S. Air Force Utah Test and Training Range, southwest of Salt Lake City with the contents of cometary and interstellar dust particles. \u2018All stations, we have touchdown,\u2019 Stardust Project Manager Tom Duxbury of NASA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced at 5:12 a.m. EST (10:12 a.m. GMT), after which NASA scientists at Mission Control broke into applause and cheers.<\/font><\/p>\n Helicopters quickly found the capsule, which was examined and packed up for a trip to the Michael Army Air Field at the U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground in Utah for initial processing.<\/font><\/p>\n Later, the samples will be moved to a special laboratory at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Texas, where they will be preserved and studied.<\/font><\/p>\n \u2018With the information we gathered during our encounter with comet Wild 2 in January 2004, Stardust has already provided us with some remarkable science,\u2019 said Don Brownlee, Stardust principal investigator at the University of Washington in Seattle.<\/font><\/p>\n \u2018With the return of cometary samples,\u2019 he added, \u2018we\u2019ll be able to work with the actual building materials of the solar system as they were when the solar system was formed. It will be a great day for science.\u2019 Expected timelines:<\/font><\/p>\n Capsule Milestones (all times approximate EST on Jan. 15) The comet sampling probe Stardust has successfully returned to Earth after a 2.88 billion journey around the solar system. Racing through the entry-interface stage at 28,860mph, faster than the previous record holder \u2013 the Apollo 10 capsule, Stardust\u2019s capsule landed in Utah this morning, containing what scientists believe to be the answers to fundamental questions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42181"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42181\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/font><\/font> <\/p>\n
<\/font>
<\/font>Stardust launched on Feb. 7, 1999, and encountered comet Wild 2 on Jan. 2, 2004. It flew less than 150 miles from the comet\u2019s nucleus to capture tiny grains of dust. During the voyage, the spacecraft captured bits of interstellar dust streaming into the solar system from other parts of the galaxy.<\/p>\n
<\/font><\/font> <\/p>\n\n\n
\n 12:57a.m.:<\/font><\/td>\n Spacecraft releases capsule <\/font><\/td>\n Complete<\/font><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 4:57 a.m.:<\/font><\/td>\n Capsule enters Earth atmosphere<\/font><\/td>\n Complete<\/font><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 5:05 a.m.: <\/font><\/td>\n Main parachute deploys <\/font><\/td>\n Complete<\/font><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 5:12 a.m.: <\/font><\/td>\n Capsule lands<\/font><\/td>\n Complete<\/font><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 5:22 a.m. (approx.): <\/font><\/td>\n Helicopter and crew land near capsule
<\/font><\/td>\nComplete<\/font><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 7:20 a.m. (approx.):<\/font><\/td>\n Capsule <\/font><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
<\/font>http:\/\/forum.nasaspaceflight.com\/forums\/thread-view.asp?tid=1076&start=31&posts=31
<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"