KSC-02PD-0604

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- A worker carries the high gain antenna toward the Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR) spacecraft where it will be attached on the solar panel next to the larger antenna (seen in the center of the panel). CONTOUR, scheduled for launch July 1, 2002, from LC 17A at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, will provide the first detailed look into the heart of a comet -- the nucleus. The spacecraft will fly as close as 60 miles (100 kilometers) to at least two comets, Encke and Schwassmann-Wachmann 3. It will take the sharpest pictures yet of the nucleus while analyzing the gas and dust that surround these rocky, icy building blocks of the solar system. The Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md., built CONTOUR and will also be in control of the spacecraft after launch