Deep Impact/EPOXI

EPOXI is the extended mission of the Deep Impact spacecraft. On November 4, 2010, the spacecraft will perform a flyby of comet Hartley 2. The name EPOXI is derived from the mission’s two science investigations, the Deep Impact Extended Investigation (DIXI) and the Extrasolar Planet Observation and Characterization (EPOCh). Observations will be made using all three of Deep Impact's instruments (two telescopes with digital color cameras and an infrared spectrometer).

In 2005, Deep Impact was the first spacecraft to study the interior of a comet. On July 4, it encountered comet Tempel1 and, using an impactor, excavated a crater on the comet’s surface. The spacecraft observed and recorded the impact, the material ejected, and the structure and composition of the crater’s interior.

Artist concept courtesy of NASA/Jet Propulsion-Caltech

Rosetta Spies Lutetia

The Rosetta spacecraft captured this image of asteroid Lutetia during a close flyby on July 10, 2010. Old and battered, Lutetia is about 100 kilometers (62 miles) wide. Data collected during the flyby will help derive its mass, understand the properties of its surface, and determine if it has an atmosphere.

Launched in 2004, Rosetta is on a mission to study a comet. After a long journey to the outer solar system, the spacecraft will intercept comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in January 2014. Rosetta will be the first spacecraft to land a robot on a comet and the first to accompany one as it enters the inner solar system. This is an international mission led by the European Space Agency with support from NASA.

Image courtesy of ESA 2010 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

Hayabusa Returns From Itokawa

On a mission to study an asteroid, the Hayabusa spacecraft was launched by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in May 2003. Hayabusa arrived at its target, asteroid Itokawa, in September 2005. For more than two months the spacecraft studied and took images of Itokawa, and on November 25 it landed on the asteroid in an attempt to collect samples from its surface.

After experiencing some technical problems, Hayabusa departed Itokawa in January 2007 and began its long journey home. On June 13, 2010, the spacecraft entered Earth’s atmosphere over Woomera Test Range in South Australia. After jettisoning its sample return capsule, Hayabusa disintegrated. The capsule parachuted safely to Earth and was then taken to Japan for study. If it does contain material from Itokawa, it will be the first sample collected from an asteroid and returned to Earth.

A. Image of Itokawa taken by Hayabusa.

B. Aerial view of the sample return capsule and its parachute in the Australian outback.

Images courtesy of Institute of Space and Astronautical Research/Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

• MIMAS, MARS AND PLUTO
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• Planetary Mission Updates
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• NASA Approves Mission To Mercury
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• Mars Global Surveyor Mapping Mission Begins
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• STARDUST: Mission To A Comet
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• Galileo Reveals Process Behind Formation of Jupiter's Rings
  September 15, 1998.
• Possible Extrasolar Planet Imaged by the NASA Hubble Space Telescope
  May 28, 1998