KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - At Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Fla., workers help guide the protective cover into place over the Deep Impact spacecraft below. Deep Impact is being prepared for a move to the Hazardous Fuel Building and eventually shipment to Launch Pad 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Launch of Deep Impact is scheduled no earlier than Jan. 12. A NASA Discovery mission, Deep Impact will probe beneath the surface of Comet Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005, when the comet is 83 million miles from Earth, and reveal the secrets of its interior. After releasing a 3- by 3-foo
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - At Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Fla., workers help guide the protective cover into place over the Deep Impact spacecraft below. Deep Impact is being prepared for a move to the Hazardous Fuel Building and eventually shipment to Launch Pad 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Launch of Deep Impact is scheduled no earlier than Jan. 12. A NASA Discovery mission, Deep Impact will probe beneath the surface of Comet Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005, when the comet is 83 million miles from Earth, and reveal the secrets of its interior. After releasing a 3- by 3-foot projectile to crash onto the surface, Deep Impact’s flyby spacecraft will collect pictures and data of how the crater forms, measuring the crater’s depth and diameter, as well as the composition of the interior of the crater and any material thrown out, and determining the changes in natural outgassing produced by the impact. It will send the data back to Earth through the antennas of the Deep Space Network.
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