WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, the aerogel grid is fully deployed from the Stardust Sample Return Capsule (SRC) for final closeout. Stardust will use a unique medium called aerogel to capture comet particles flying off the nucleus of comet Wild 2 in January 2004, plus collect interstellar dust for later analysis. The collected samples will return to Earth in the SRC to be jettisoned as it swings by Earth in January 2006. Stardust is scheduled to be launched aboard a Boeing Delta 7426 rocket from Complex 17, Cape Canaveral Air Station, on Feb. 6, 1999.