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| comet - A small celestial body
composed at least partially of ices. Comets either orbit the
Sun or pass through the Solar System on hyperbolic orbital paths. |
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- Deep
Space 1 launched from Cape Canaveral on October 24, 1998.
During a highly successful primary mission, it tested 12 advanced
technologies in space.
- Stardust
is the space mission that will fly close to a comet and,
for the first time ever, bring cometary material back to Earth
for analysis by scientists worldwide. Set for launch in February
1999, Stardust will be the first U.S. mission dedicated solely
to a comet and the first robotic return of extraterrestrial material
from outside the orbit of the Moon. Its primary goal is to collect
comet dust and volatile samples during a planned close encounter
with comet Wild 2 in January of 2004. Additionally, the Stardust
spacecraft will also bring back samples of interstellar dust including
the recently discovered dust streaming into the solar system from
the direction of Sagittarius.
- Ulysses
Welcome to the European Space Agency (ESA)'s Ulysses Mission
Home Page. Ulysses is a space mission designed to explore the
unknown region of space above the poles of the Sun. Launched by
the Space Shuttle Discovery in October, 1990, Ulysses flew by
Jupiter in February, 1992, where a gravity assist maneuver placed
the spacecraft in a unique solar polar orbit, allowing it to fly
over the south pole of the Sun in 1994 and over the north pole
in 1995. With the first phase of its mission successfully completed,
Ulysses has now embarked on a second orbit of the Sun, which it
will complete in December, 2001. Ulysses is a joint project of
the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA.
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