Stardust return to Earth

Stardust capsule on the ground. Credit: NASA

On January 15, 2006, the Sample Return Capsule from the Stardust spacecraft returned to Earth with more than 10,000 particles larger than 1 micrometer, collected from the coma of comet Wild 2 (81P/Wild) and from interstellar dust. Launched on February 7, 1999, Stardust flew by the short-period comet on January 2, 2004. The primary goal of the flyby was to collect samples of the coma and return them to Earth.

   The capsule separated from the main craft (with a stabilizing spin of 1.5 rpm) on January 15, 2006, at 5:57 UT and entered the atmosphere four hours later at 9:57 UT. An aeroshell slowed the capsule down initially for about ten minutes, the drogue parachute was deployed at 10:00 UT and the main parachute 5 minutes later at an altitude of roughly 3 km. The capsule landed at 10:10 UT within a 30 x 84 km landing ellipse at the U.S. Air Force Test and Training Range in the Utah desert. High winds caused the capsule to drift about 5 miles north of its entry ground track, but with the aid of a locator beacon the capsule was found at 10:54 UT and was later transported by helicopter to a clean room, arriving at about 13:00 UT. Then, it was transferred to the Planetary Materials Curatorial facility at Johnson Space Center in Houston. There, scientists began a long search for traces of tiny particles in the aerogel. 

  

Stardust capsule reentry into the atmosphere. Credit: NASA

   According to Dr. Donald Brownlee, the principal investigator for Stardust:

"It was the middle of the night in a very isolated Utah location. The entry of the capsule was a wonder. It was [a] glowing red fireball with a luminous tail coming in from the west. It was coming down and getting closer but viewed from ground zero it oddly climbed up in the sky. People near Wendover heard the sonic boom and a NASA aircraft got spectacular images as did a film crew from Japan on the ground. I was outside to see the fireball and then inside to watch images from tracking devices. It landed in the dark and it took several hours to find it. It was found by our helicopter crew and returned to a special cleanroom facility prepared for it where it was inspected and prepared for [a] flight the next day to the Johnson Space Center in Houston."   

– Doug Adler. "Stardust: The mission that forever changed our understanding of comets". Astronomy. January 15, 2022

Stardust's capsule is being lifted at the landing site. Credit: NASA

Donald Brownlee, Stardust principal investigator with the University of Washington, flashes a victory sign for the successful arrival of Stardust material. Also pictured are JSC's Mike Zolensky (left), curator and co-investigator for the project; Friedrich Horz, JSC, and Peter Tsou, Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Credit: NASA

   The major finding of the analysis of the comet dust particles was that the rocky components of the comet, most of its total mass, formed at hot temperatures above 1000 degrees Celsius, but some of the ice formed at near absolute zero temperatures. Many of the materials in the comet have also been found in meteorites. Comet Wild 2 is a broader mix of components suggesting that materials from a broad range of locations were transported out beyond Pluto where the comet formed. The comet rocky silicate materials formed first, then assembled with ice and organics in a drastically colder place. This proved that the formation of comet dust and ice was clearly decoupled. The samples proved that the outer solar system was not isolated from the inner solar system, and that materials were clearly mixing over regions from near the Sun to regions beyond the orbit of Pluto.

Comet particle tracks in aerogel of Stardust spacecraft. Credit: NASA

   The main spacecraft was diverted so as not to reenter Earth's atmosphere and remained in orbit around the Sun. It flew by Earth again for a gravity assist on January 14,  2009, and was funded for an extended mission to fly by Comet Tempel 1 on February 14, 2011, the New Exploration of Tempel 1 (NExT) mission, the spacecraft itself now generally referred to as Stardust/NExT.

Stardust Sample Return Capsule on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. NASA transferred the capsule to the Museum in 2008.

Link to the Stardust Reentry video taken from a NASA DC-8 aircraft

© 2026, Andrew Mirecki