Planetary science

Deep Impact

Completed

Image: NASA/JPL · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Launched: 12 Jan 200518:47:08 UTC
Last contact: 8 Aug 2013
End declared: 20 Sept 2013
Duration: 8 years 6 months
Destinations: Tempel 1, Hartley 2

A NASA mission that fired a 372 kg impactor into comet Tempel 1 to expose material from beneath its surface. The flyby spacecraft later visited a second comet, Hartley 2, as the EPOXI mission.

Milestones

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20062007200820092010201120122013

Spacecraft

Deep Impact flyby spacecraft

Flyby

Completed

Spacecraft that released the impactor and watched the collision with two telescopes from 500 km away.

Launch mass: 601 kg
Dry mass: 515 kg
Size: 3.3 m × 1.7 m, span 3.3 m
Power: Solar
Built by: Ball Aerospace
Last contact: 8 Aug 2013
End declared: 20 Sept 2013
Designator: 2005-001A

Deep Impact impactor

Impactor

Completed

Copper-fronted probe that steered itself into the comet's path and was hit at 10 km/s, filming until the end.

Launch mass: 372 kg
Dry mass: 364 kg
Size: 1 m × 1 m, span 1 m
Power: Battery
Built by: Ball Aerospace
Last contact: 4 Jul 2005, 05:52:00 UTC

Mission details from nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov.