Reusing Existing Spacecraft – Smart – and Cool

A Tale of Two Comets – NASA’s Stardust Samples Amaze Researchers, as Mothership is Eyed for Recon at Deep Impact Site, Aviation Week & Space Technology

“In a dramatic bid to maximize the utilization of existing, low- cost planetary spacecraft, researchers want to divert the NASA/Lockheed Martin Stardust comet-sample-return mothership to intercept and image a second comet, blasted open last July 4 by the Deep Impact mission. Stardust is about 20 million mi. behind the Earth in a solar orbit that earlier enabled it to collect samples from the comet Wild 2.”