WEBVTT


1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.060
 

2
00:00:01.060 --> 00:00:06.450
 In the early morning hours of July 3. 2002. NASA's Comet Nucleus TOUR. 

3
00:00:06.450 --> 00:00:10.380
 or CONTOUR spacecraft. was launched aboard a Delta II rocket 

4
00:00:10.380 --> 00:00:13.240
 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. 

5
00:00:13.240 --> 00:00:17.430
 A few weeks after the successful launch. CONTOUR was scheduled to ignite its 

6
00:00:17.430 --> 00:00:22.010
 third-stage solid rocket engine on August 15th. 2002. 

7
00:00:22.010 --> 00:00:25.980
 This would take the spacecraft out of Earth orbit and put it on a heliocentric 

8
00:00:25.980 --> 00:00:29.390
 trajectory. However. contact with the spacecraft was lost. 

9
00:00:29.390 --> 00:00:33.620
 A mishap investigation board determined the probable cause was the spacecraft 

10
00:00:33.620 --> 00:00:37.390
 broke apart due to plume heating during the motor burn. 

11
00:00:37.390 --> 00:00:40.910
 The mission was part of NASA's Discovery program of lower-cost. 

12
00:00:40.910 --> 00:00:45.270
 highly focused planetary science investigations. CONTOUR was designed to make 

13
00:00:45.270 --> 00:00:49.340
 a detailed study of the interior of two very different comets. 

14
00:00:49.340 --> 00:00:54.240
 Encke and Schwassmann-Wachmann-3. as they made their periodic visits to the 

15
00:00:54.240 --> 00:00:58.410
 inner solar system. CONTOUR's goals were to improve our knowledge of key 

16
00:00:58.410 --> 00:01:02.610
 characteristics of comet nuclei and to assess their diversity. 

17
00:01:02.610 --> 00:01:03.930