Stardust

Workers ready the Stardust spacecraft for its transfer to launch vehicle from the payload hazardous services facility at Kennedy Space Center. Launched on 7 February 1999, the Stardust mission is due to make a fly-by of comet Wild 2 in early 2004 and return samples of interstellar dust to Earth in early 2006.

US project to obtain a sample of dust and gas from the head of a comet. Launched in February 1999, the Stardust space probe flew through the head of the comet Wild 2 on 2 January 2004, passing within 240 km/150 mi of the 4-km/2.5-mi nucleus and taking 72 photographs. It returned to the vicinity of the Earth and released a capsule containing its samples, which parachuted to ground in the desert near Great Salt Lake, Utah, in January 2006.