Deep Impact (spacecraft): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 18:53, 28 June 2005

Revision as of 17:02, 29 June 2005

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==Mission events==

===Before launch===

A comet-impact mission was first proposed to NASA in [[1996]]. However, NASA engineers were skeptical that the target could be hit. [http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/di-name.html] In [[1999]], a revised and technologically-upgraded mission proposal, dubbed Deep Impact, was accepted and funded as part of NASA's [[Discovery Program]] of low-cost space spacecraft. The name of the mission is shared with the ''[[Deep Impact (movie)| Deep Impact]]'' movie, in which a comet strikes the Earth, but this is coincidental, as both the scientists behind the mission and the creators of the movie devised the name independently of each other, at around the same time. [http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=410785&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312]

===Launch and commissioning phase===