BOULDER, Colo., Nov. 4, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- The Ball
Aerospace-built Deep Impact Flyby spacecraft successfully completed
another "first" for NASA on November
4 when its onboard cameras captured spectacular images of
comet Hartley 2 as part of the EPOXI mission. This was the
first time in history that two comets – Hartley 2 and Tempel 1 -
have been imaged by the same spacecraft, same instruments, and with
the same spatial resolution.
(Photo:
http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20101104/LA95250)
(Photo:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20101104/LA95250)
The rendezvous with Hartley 2 is the third mission for the Deep
Impact spacecraft. The first was in 2005 when the Impactor
aboard the Deep Impact spacecraft collided with comet Tempel 1 and
excavated debris from the comet's nucleus. Images captured by
cameras aboard both the Impactor and the Flyby have been used by
the scientific community to study the composition of Tempel 1. The
second was the Extrasolar Planet Observation and Characterization
(EPOCh) mission that ended in August
2008, providing observations of the Earth in both visible
and infrared wavelengths.
"Deep Impact is proving to be a spacecraft that keeps on
giving," said David L. Taylor,
president and CEO of Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. "When
it launched in January of 2005, the Deep Impact mission was the
priority, so it's extremely rewarding to see a three-peat
performance six years later that provides more beneficial science
data."
Science observations of comet Hartley 2 began on Sept. 5, with the mission's encounter phase
commencing the evening of Nov. 3,
when the spacecraft was about eighteen hours from the time of
closest approach to the comet's nucleus. The spacecraft flew past
the comet at approximately 8 a.m.
(MDT) on November 4 when the
spacecraft was re-oriented to maintain imaging of the comet nucleus
while pointing its high-gain antenna at Earth in order to begin
downlinking nearly 5,800 images.
Hartley 2 is the fifth time that a comet has been imaged
close-up. In the months leading up to its closest encounter with
Comet Hartley 2, the spacecraft responded to multiple commands to
align itself for optimum viewing. Approximately the size of a
subcompact car, the spacecraft had already used about half of its
85 kg of hydrazine fuel to complete the encounter with Tempel 1.
Following the Hartley 2 imaging, it will still have enough
useable fuel, 4kg, to support science observations from its current
orbit, should NASA task it with a new assignment.
Ball Aerospace was the 2005 Deep Impact mission prime
contractor, responsible for the two-part spacecraft: the Impactor
spacecraft and Flyby spacecraft; and three high resolution cameras;
algorithm development; environmental testing; and launch and
mission support. Since its launch, the Deep Impact spacecraft
and mission team have logged 3.2 billion miles. Because the
vast majority of mission costs are the initial design, testing and
launch, the recycled Deep Impact provided savings on the order of
90 percent that of a hypothetical mission with similar goals,
starting from the ground up.
Ball Aerospace was teamed with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
and the University of Maryland on the
Deep Impact and its subsequent missions. For more information about
EPOXI visit epoxi.umd.edu/.
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. supports critical
missions of important national agencies such as the Department of
Defense, NASA, NOAA and other U.S. government and commercial
entities. The company develops and manufactures spacecraft,
advanced instruments and sensors, components, data exploitation
systems and RF solutions for strategic, tactical and scientific
applications. For more information visit www.ballaerospace.com.
Ball Corporation (NYSE: BLL) is a supplier of high-quality
packaging for beverage, food and household products customers, and
of aerospace and other technologies and services, primarily for the
U.S. government. Ball Corporation and its subsidiaries employ more
than 14,000 people worldwide and reported 2009 sales of more than
$7.3 billion including discontinued
operations.
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changes; changes in senior management; the current global recession
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SOURCE Ball Aerospace