STARDUST Update - August 22, 2003

Stardust Status Report
August 22, 2003

The spacecraft is in its 2-month solar conjunction period where it is
within 3 deg of the sun as viewed from earth. There is no commanding but
only downlink telemetry during this period. There were no Deep Space
Network passes during the past week.

The Stardust flight team held a very successful Encounter Workshop at the
University of Washington this week. Among the numerous topics of
conversation were optical navigation and imaging for the spacecraft's
closest approach imaging strategy for the upcoming Comet Wild 2 encounter
in January 2004.

Information on the present position and orbits of the Stardust spacecraft
and comet Wild 2 may be found on the "Where Is Stardust Right Now?" web
page located at:

http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/scnow.html

For more information on the Stardust mission -- the first ever comet
sample-return mission -- please visit the Stardust home page:

http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov .