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Brian Muirhead To Lead Deep Space 4/Champollion Mission


MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109.  TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Contact:  Franklin O'Donnell

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                         February 26, 1998

MUIRHEAD TO LEAD DEEP SPACE 4/CHAMPOLLION MISSION

     Brian K. Muirhead, project manager for NASA's Mars 
Pathfinder mission that delivered a lander and rover to the 
surface of Mars, has been named project manager for the Deep 
Space 4/Champollion mission to a comet.

     Planned for launch in 2003, the Deep Space 4/Champollion 
spacecraft will rendezvous with Comet Tempel 1 in 2005 and spend 
several months orbiting the comet nucleus making high-resolution 
maps of its surface.  The spacecraft will deploy a lander with a 
1-meter-long (3.3-foot) drill to collect samples that will be 
analyzed on-site; an attempt will be made to return a sample to 
Earth in 2010.

     The project is part of the Deep Space mission series under 
the NASA/JPL New Millennium Program, designed to perform flight 
demonstrations of new spacecraft technologies for solar system 
and Earth-orbiting missions.

     A native of Chicago, Muirhead joined JPL in 1978 and has 
worked on missions including Galileo to Jupiter and the Earth-
orbiting Spaceborne Imaging Radar (SIR-C).  Muirhead also managed 
JPL's Advanced Spacecraft Development Group and Mechanical 
Systems Integration Section.  He joined the Mars Pathfinder 
mission as flight system manager and was responsible for the 
design, development, test and launch of the spacecraft.  After 
launch, he served as deputy project manager before being named 
project manager upon Pathfinder's successful landing in July 
1997.  

     Muirhead holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering 
from the University of New Mexico and a master's degree in 
aeronautical engineering from the California Institute of 
Technology.

     JPL is managed for NASA by Caltech.

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