Current mood:

excited

liftoff
I'm off. NASA sent me up on a Delta 7325 today at 6:47:41 UT. If you don't know, a Delta 7325 is a Delta II Lite launch vehicle with three strap-on solid-rocket boosters and a Star 30 third stage.

I have a busy schedule though. I'm not one of those probes, that views a big target like a planet. Oh no, I'm taking a tour of little comets, thus I have to be a bit more precise. I'm not trying to say I'm better, we're all one big happy family, each with our own talents.



So here's my schedule: (subject to change due to the discovery of a new comet with the desired characteristics - active, brighter than absolute magnitude 10, perihelion within 1.5 AU)

August 15 2002
injection maneuver on to eject me from Earth orbit and put me in a heliocentric trajectory

August 2003 Earth fly-by

November 12 2003
encounter with comet Encke at
fly-by speed of 28.2 km/sec
1.07 AU from the Sun and 0.27 AU from Earth

August 2004 Earth fly-by

February 2005 Earth fly-by

February 2006 Earth fly-by

June 18 2006
encounter with comet Schwassmann-Wachmann-3
fly-by speed of 14 km/sec
0.95 AU from the Sun and 0.33 AU from Earth

February 2007 Earth fly-by

February 2008 Earth fly-by

August 16 2008
encounter with comet d'Arrest
relative velocity of 11.8 km/sec
1.35 AU from the Sun and 0.36 AU from Earth.

NOTE: The planned closest encounter distance of all fly-bys had will be around 100 km and will occur near the period of maximum activity for the comets.