Introduction to Small Bodies Node:

Comet and Asteroid Missions

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Current Spacecraft Missions

          The New Horizons Mission to Pluto/Charon & Kuiper Belt
The Hayabusa (former Muses-C) Mission to the asteroid 1998 SF36
The Rosetta Mission to Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko
The Extended Deep Impact Mission (EPOXI) to Comet Boethin
          The Extended STARDUST Mission (NEXT) to Comet Tempel 1
 

Future Spacecraft Missions

The Dawn Mission to asteroids Vesta & Ceres

Small Bodies Mission Chart
Mission Name Launch Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Land Depart Earth Return Comments
NEAR 1996/02/17 1997/06/27 1998/12/23 2000/02/14 2001/02/12 --- --- Flyby (253) Mathilde,
Orbit (433) Eros,
Deep Space 1 1998/10/24 1999/07/28 2001/09/22 --- --- --- --- Flyby (9969) Braille
& 19P/Borrelly
Stardust 1999/02/07 2002/11/02 2004/01/02 --- --- --- 2006/01/15 Rend Anne Frank
Fly through coma
81P/Wild2, sample return
Hayabusa 2003/05/09 2005/09 --- --- 2005/10 2005/12 2007/06 Rend & sample return,
25143 Itokowa
Rosetta 2004/02/24 2008/09/05 2010/07/10 --- 2014/01/02 --- --- Flyby (2867) Steins
& (21) Lutetia, rend &
land 67P/Churyumov-
Gerasimenko
Deep Impact 2005/01/12 2005/07/04 --- --- 2005/07/04 --- --- Deep impact crater &
flyby of 9P/Tempel 1
Dawn 2007/09 2010/07/30 2014/08/20 --- --- --- --- Rend Vesta & Ceres
New Horizons 2006/01/01 2007/01/01 2015/04/15 2026/07/15 --- --- --- Rend Jupiter, Pluto &
Kuiper Belt object
Extended Deep Impact Mission
(EPOXI)		         2008/12/05/     Flyby of comet Boethin;
 on its way to the comet
will collect the data on
extrasolar planets
Extended Stardust Mission
(NEXT)		         2011/02/14     Look at the changes to a
comet nucleus produced
by Deep Impact and comet's
close approach to the sun

         

          Last Update: Puru Shetty (July 16, 2007)
          Contact: pshetty@umd.edu