Posted by Davin Flateau on 3 Jul 2005 at 9:31 am.
Filed under Astronomy.
Deep Impact successfully released its Impactor spacecraft - the 820-pound probe that will smash into Comet Tempel 1 tonight. Spaceflight Now reports:
“It went great. Went like clockwork. Very good, we’re very excited,” Rick Grammier, Deep Impact project manager, says of this evening’s events.
“It looked just like one of our simulations,” added Keyur Patel, deputy program manager. “In fact, people were commenting they couldn’t tell the difference.”
The main Deep Impact probe sent back a quick snapshot of the Impactor as flew ahead (inset).
The Impactor has a camera of its own, and it will take a “bullet’s eye” series of images as it plows into the comet. The first Impactor image is the subject of a 1pm CDT press conference that will be covered on NASA TV.
