KSC-99pc40

Workers in the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility watch as the <a href="http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/captions/subjects/stardust.htm"> Stardust</a> spacecraft is rotated and lowered before deploying the solar panels for lighting tests. Stardust is scheduled to be launched aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket from Launch Pad 17A, Cape Canaveral Air Station, on Feb. 6, 1999, for a rendezvous with the comet Wild 2 in January 2004. Stardust will use a substance called aerogel to capture comet particles flying off the nucleus of the comet, plus collect interstellar dust for later analysis. The collected samples will return to Earth in a sample return capsule (seen on top of the spacecraft) to be jettisoned as it swings by Earth in January 2006