[meteorite-list] EPOXI Spacecraft Preps for Comet Flyby

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2010 10:19:06 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201010281719.o9SHJ6qM000509_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-353

NASA Spacecraft Preps for Comet Flyby
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
October 27, 2010

In one of its final mission trajectory correction maneuvers, the EPOXI
mission spacecraft has refined its orbit, preparing it for the flyby of
comet Hartley 2 on Nov. 4. The time of closest approach to the comet on
that day is expected to be about 7:02 a.m. PDT (10:02 a.m. EDT).

Today's trajectory correction maneuver began at 11 a.m. PDT (2 p.m.
EDT), when the spacecraft burned its engines for 60 seconds, changing
its velocity by 1.59 meters per second (3.6 miles per hour).

On Nov. 4, the spacecraft will fly past Hartley 2 at a distance of about
700 kilometers (435 miles). It will be only the fifth time in history
that a spacecraft has been close enough to image a comet's nucleus.

EPOXI is an extended mission that uses the already "in-flight" Deep
Impact spacecraft to explore distinct celestial targets of opportunity.
The name EPOXI itself is a combination of the names for the two extended
mission components: the extrasolar planet observations, called
Extrasolar Planet Observations and Characterization (EPOCh); and the
flyby of comet Hartley 2, called the Deep Impact Extended Investigation
(DIXI). The spacecraft will continue to be referred to as "Deep Impact."

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the EPOXI
mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The
University of Maryland, College Park, is home to the mission's principal
investigator, Michael A'Hearn. Drake Deming of NASA's Goddard Space
Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., is the science lead for the mission's
extrasolar planet observations. The spacecraft was built for NASA by
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo.

For more information about EPOXI, visit: http://epoxi.umd.edu/ .

Priscilla Vega/DC Agle 818-354-1357/353-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Priscilla.r.vega at jpl.nasa.gov
agle at jpl.nasa.gov

2010-353
Received on Thu 28 Oct 2010 01:19:06 PM PDT