Deep Impact Spacecraft Gets a New Mission
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From Times Staff and Wire Reports
NASA has given Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers permission to place the Deep Impact spacecraft on an orbit that might allow it to intercept another comet.
The craft fired its thrusters Wednesday so that it would sweep by Earth in 2008. An extension would cost about 10% of the mission’s $333-million cost. JPL engineers hope the maneuver will allow the spacecraft to steer toward 85P/Boethin, a comet that was discovered in 1975 and orbits the sun every 11 years. The craft does not have another impactor, but it could observe the comet up close.
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