WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

At Astrotech in Titusville, Fla., the solar arrays on the Deep Impact spacecraft are ready for an illumination test as a final check of performance. Launch aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket from Pad 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., is scheduled for Jan. 8. The Deep Impact mission is the first to explore a comet's interior by using a spacecraft to create a crater, allowing us to look deep inside. Dramatic images from both the flyby spacecraft and the impactor will be sent back to distant Earth as data in near-realtime. These first- ever views deep beneath a comets surface, and additional scientific measurements will provide clues to the formation of the solar system. Amateur astronomers will combine efforts with astronomers at larger telescopes to offer the public an earth- based look at this incredible July 2005 encounter with a comet.