WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, workers at left check instruments during a lighting test on the solar panels of the Stardust spacecraft. Stardust is scheduled to be launched aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket from Launch Pad 17A, Cape Canaveral Air Station, on Feb. 6, 1999, for a rendezvous with the comet Wild 2 in January 2004. Stardust will use a substance called aerogel to capture comet particles flying off the nucleus of the comet, plus collect interstellar dust for later analysis. The collected samples will return to Earth in a sample return capsule (its white cap is seen on the near end of the spacecraft) to be jettisoned as it swings by Earth in January 2006.