Stardust

Mission Profile

Stardust was a NASA Discovery-class spacecraft launched on 7 February 1999 aboard a Delta II 7426-9.5, designed to fly through the coma of Comet Wild 2 and collect cometary and interstellar dust particles for return to Earth. On 2 January 2004, Stardust flew within 236 km of Wild 2's nucleus at 6.1 km/s, capturing thousands of particles in an aerogel collector before returning its sample capsule to Earth on 15 January 2006 — the first return of cometary material. Analysis of the samples revealed glycine (an amino acid) and complex organics, as well as high-temperature crystalline silicates that could only have formed close to the young Sun before being transported to the outer solar system. After its primary mission, the spacecraft was redirected to fly past Comet Tempel 1 in 2011 to image the impact crater from NASA's Deep Impact mission before being retired.