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http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/

New Launch Date for Deep Impact
Deep Impact Project
April 1, 2003

A new launch window is announced for the Deep Impact project, the
first mission to look deep inside a comet. Technical and management
issues, including contamination in the propulsion system and late
deliveries of key spacecraft components, resulted in delays in the
pre-flight testing schedule. These concerns led Deep Impact Principal
Investigator, Mike A'Hearn, to recommend to NASA a delay of launch. A
launch window beginning December 30, 2004, previously identified as a
back-up date, provides more thorough testing for the spacecraft
systems before launch and allows the spacecraft to arrive at Comet
Tempel 1 to impact it as originally scheduled on July, 4, 2005. NASA
management approved the recommendation.

Old Trajectory Diagram:
http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/jpg/traj_old_color.jpg

New Trajectory Diagram:
http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/jpg/traj_new_color.jpg

Deep Impact will be the first mission to make a spectacular, 
football-stadium-sized crater, seven to 15 stories deep, into the 
speeding comet. Dramatic images from both the flyby spacecraft and 
the impactor will be sent back to distant Earth as data in
near-realtime.  These first-ever views deep beneath a comet's
surface, and additional scientific measurements will provide clues to
the formation of the solar system. Amateur astronomers will combine
efforts with astronomers at larger telescopes to offer the public an
earth-based look at this incredible July 2005 encounter with a comet.

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