{"id":19573,"date":"2010-05-31T09:28:00","date_gmt":"2010-05-31T09:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/nasa-spacecraft-burns-for-home-then-comet\/"},"modified":"2010-05-31T09:28:00","modified_gmt":"2010-05-31T09:28:00","slug":"nasa-spacecraft-burns-for-home-then-comet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/space-station\/nasa-spacecraft-burns-for-home-then-comet.php","title":{"rendered":"NASA Spacecraft Burns for Home, Then Comet"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Artist's<\/span>
Artist's concept of Epoxi spacecraft. › Full image and caption<\/a>
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NASA's Deep Impact\/Epoxi spacecraft<\/span> has successfully performed a trajectory correction maneuver to refine its orbit prior to an upcoming Earth flyby June 27. The maneuver, along with the Earth flyby, will place the spacecraft on a trajectory to fly past comet Hartley 2 on Nov. 4. <\/span>

<\/p><\/span> The maneuver began at 2 p.m. EST (11 a.m. PST) today, when the spacecraft fired its engines for 11.3 seconds. While the burn changed the spacecraft's velocity by only 0.1 meters per second (less than a quarter mile per hour), that was all the mission's navigators requested to set the stage for an Earth gravity assist on June 27. <\/span>

<\/p><\/span> \"While it was a small burn, it was a big step in getting us to Hartley 2,\" said Tim Larson, project manager of NASA<\/a>'s Epoxi mission<\/span>. \"Humanity's fifth close-up view of a comet is less than five months away.\" <\/span>

<\/p><\/span> Epoxi is an extended mission of the Deep Impact spacecraft. Its name is derived from its two tasked science investigations -- the Deep Impact Extended Investigation<\/span> (DIXI) and the Extrasolar Planet Observation and Characterization<\/span> (EPOCh). <\/span>

<\/p><\/span> The University of Maryland is the Principal Investigator institution. JPL <\/span>manages Epoxi for NASA's Science Mission<\/span> Directorate, Washington. The spacecraft <\/span>was built for NASA <\/span>by Ball Aerospace & Technologies<\/span> Corp., Boulder, Colo. <\/span>

<\/p><\/span> For information about Epoxi, visit <\/span>http:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/epoxi<\/a><\/span>.<\/span>

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