MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

DC Agle (818) 393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Status Report: 2004-118 May 5, 2004

NASA Genesis Spacecraft on Final Lap Toward Home

NASA's Genesis spacecraft flew past Earth on Saturday in a loop that
puts it on track for home - and a dramatic mid-air recovery Sept. 8.

The Genesis mission was launched in August of 2001 to capture samples
from the storehouse of 99-percent of all the material in our solar
system - the Sun. The samples of solar wind particles, collected on
ultra-pure wafers of gold, sapphire, silicon and diamond, will be
returned for analysis by Earth-bound scientists. The samples Genesis
will provide will supply scientists with vital information on the
composition of the Sun, and will shed light on the origins of our
solar system.

"Genesis has been way out there collecting samples from space for a
long time," said Genesis project manager Don Sweetnam of NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "Saturday, we brushed past
Earth just beyond the Moon's orbit. On September 6, we will again
approach Earth at lunar distance, but this time we are going to come
on in carrying NASA's first samples from space since Apollo 17 carried
the last moon rocks back in December of 1972."

The Earth flyby occurred at about 3:00 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time on
Saturday, May 1, at an altitude of 386,000 kilometers (239,850 miles)
above the planet's surface - just beyond the Moon's orbit. At that
time, the spacecraft was traveling at a speed relative to Earth of
1.26 kilometers per second (2,800 miles per hour).

Helicopter flight crews, navigators and mission engineers are
preparing for the return of the spacecraft. The will dispatch a
sample return capsule that will re-enter Earth's atmosphere for a
planned mid-air capture at the U.S. Air Force Utah Test and Training
Range on Sept. 8. To preserve the delicate particles of the Sun,
specially trained helicopter pilots will snag the return capsule from
mid-air using custom-designed hooks. The flight crews for the two
helicopters assigned for Genesis capture and return are comprised of
former military aviators and Hollywood stunt pilots.

JPL manages the Genesis mission for NASA's Office of Space Science,
Washington, D.C. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, developed and
operates the spacecraft. JPL is a division of the California
Institute of Technology, the home institute of Genesis's principal
investigator Dr. Don Burnett. More information about Genesis is
available at

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/genesis

More information about the actual capture and return process is
available at

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/genesis/mission/recgallery.html


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