科技英语新闻:NASA's Stardust spacecraft ends 12-year operation

WASHINGTON, March 25 (Xinhua) -- NASA's Stardust spacecraft depleted fuel and ceased operation on Thursday after a 12-year run, the U.S. space agency said Friday.

"This is the end of the spacecraft's operations, but really just the beginnings of what this spacecraft's accomplishments will give to planetary science," said Lindley Johnson, Stardust-NExT and Discovery program executive at NASA headquarters in Washington.

"The treasure-trove of science data and engineering information collected and returned by Stardust is invaluable for planning future deep space planetary missions."

Launched on Feb. 7, 1999, Stardust flew past the asteroid named Annefrank and traveled halfway to Jupiter to collect the particle samples from the comet Wild 2. The spacecraft returned to Earth's vicinity to drop off a sample return capsule eagerly awaited by comet scientists.

NASA re-tasked the spacecraft as Stardust-NExT to perform a bonus mission and fly past comet Tempel 1, which was struck by the Deep Impact mission in 2005. The mission collected images and other scientific data to compare with images of that comet collected by the Deep Impact.

The Stardust-NExT met all mission goals, and the spacecraft was extremely successful during both missions. From launch until final rocket engine burn, it travelled approximately 3.54 billion miles.

After the mileage logged in space, the Stardust team knew the end was near for the spacecraft. With its fuel tank empty and final radio transmission concluded, the most traveled comet hunter will move from NASA's active mission roster to retired.

"This kind of feels like the end of one of those old western movies where you watch the hero ride his horse toward the distant setting sun -- and then the credits begin to roll," said Stardust-NExT project manager Tim Larson from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "Only there's no setting sun in space."