NASA shuts down Stardust spacecraft

Boston Globe : Yesterday NASA shut down its Stardust space probe, ending the craft’s 12-year career. Launched in 1999, the probe was designed to study the asteroid 5535 Annefrank and collect samples from comet Wild 2. It completed its primary mission in 2006, when it returned a sample capsule of comet particles to Earth. The probe continued working and last month photographed a crater on an asteroid. “Like saying goodbye to a friend,” said Allan Cheuvront, Stardust program manager for Lockheed Martin, who has worked on the probe since its design stage in 1996. “It’s been an amazing spacecraft. It’s done everything we asked; it’s done it perfectly.”