In the early morning hours of July 3. 2002. NASA's Comet Nucleus TOUR.
or CONTOUR spacecraft. was launched aboard a Delta II rocket
from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
A few weeks after the successful launch. CONTOUR was scheduled to ignite its
third-stage solid rocket engine on August 15th. 2002.
This would take the spacecraft out of Earth orbit and put it on a heliocentric
trajectory. However. contact with the spacecraft was lost.
A mishap investigation board determined the probable cause was the spacecraft
broke apart due to plume heating during the motor burn.
The mission was part of NASA's Discovery program of lower-cost.
highly focused planetary science investigations. CONTOUR was designed to make
a detailed study of the interior of two very different comets.
Encke and Schwassmann-Wachmann-3. as they made their periodic visits to the
inner solar system. CONTOUR's goals were to improve our knowledge of key
characteristics of comet nuclei and to assess their diversity.