KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - The truck carrying the NASA Discovery Mission Deep Impact spacecraft backs into the facility at Astrotech Space Operations near Kennedy Space Center. The spacecraft was transported from Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo. Deep Impact is designed to launch a copper projectile into the surface of Comet Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005, when the comet is 83 million miles from Earth. When this 820-pound “impactor” hits the surface of the comet at nearly 23,000 miles per hour, the 3- by 3-foot projectile will create a crater hundreds of feet in size. Deep Im

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - The truck carrying the NASA Discovery Mission Deep Impact spacecraft backs into the facility at Astrotech Space Operations near Kennedy Space Center. The spacecraft was transported from Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo. Deep Impact is designed to launch a copper projectile into the surface of Comet Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005, when the comet is 83 million miles from Earth. When this 820-pound “impactor” hits the surface of the comet at nearly 23,000 miles per hour, the 3- by 3-foot projectile will create a crater hundreds of feet in size. 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. The spacecraft is scheduled to launch Dec. 30, 2004, aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket from Launch Complex 17 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.

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