NASA's Stardust was the first U.S. mission dedicated solely to a comet and was the first
to return extraterrestrial material from outside the orbit of the moon.
Launched on February 7. 1999. from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Florida.
on a Delta II rocket. Stardust collected interstellar dust as it flew through
the solar system.
Stardust's main objective was to capture a sample from a well-preserved comet called
Wild-2. which it did successfully on January 2. 2004. Thirteen days later.
Stardust delivered those samples of comet and interstellar dust in a return capsule that
landed in the Utah desert. completing the world's first sample return from a comet.
But that was not the end of Stardust's journeys. After completing its primary mission.
the spacecraft was reconfigured for a new mission called Stardust-Next.
an extended mission to fly by comet Tempel 1. In February. 2011.
the satellite collected images and other scientific data of Tempel 1.
to compare with images collected by the Deep Impact mission in 2005.
On March 24. 2011. NASA's Stardust spacecraft performed a final burn with its main
engines. Called 'burn to depletion'. it confirmed how much fuel Stardust had left in its
tank. helping scientists validate fuel consumption models and improve accuracy for
future missions. This marked the end of a successful 12 year mission
for the Stardust spacecraft.
From launch until final rocket engine burn. Stardust travelled approximately
3.54 billion miles.