NASA gets piece of tail

January 9, 2006 12:07 PM

This weekend, NASA will order the Stardust spacecraft to jettison its 100-pound capsule that contains comet dust. The capsule will hurdle through earth’s atmosphere and make a soft landing in the Utah desert. Not directly connected to last summer’s Deep Impact, Stardust’s mission is to bring comet debris back to earth for study. Here’s hoping we don’t need the Wildfire lab.
posted by mania (17 comments total)

Every sci-fi horror movie starts exactly like this.

Interesting post! Will this be webcast live?
posted by LarryC at 12:09 PM on January 9, 2006

No live webcast, but NASA is promoting going out and looking for yourself.
posted by mania at 12:16 PM on January 9, 2006

You are in my arms
The nightingale tells his fairy tale
Of paradise where roses grew.

Though I dream in vain, in my heart you will remain
My stardust melody
The memory of love’s refrain.
posted by elpapacito at 12:27 PM on January 9, 2006

The capsule will hurdle through earth’s atmosphere

i've heard of high hurdles but this is ridiculous.
posted by quonsar at 12:31 PM on January 9, 2006

You've been warned. The zombie apocolypse is imminent. I'll be hiding in Steve Dallas' old bunker.
posted by keswick at 12:39 PM on January 9, 2006

Seriously, are they trying to turn us into zombies? Doesn't anyone at Nasa have cable?

I'll be in the basement stacking double ought and cases of Dinty Moore, someone make sure and bring a can opener.
posted by Divine_Wino at 1:04 PM on January 9, 2006

Keep drinking Sterno, and you'll be fine.
posted by rocket88 at 1:08 PM on January 9, 2006

Y'know, we've got plenty of dust and debris down here...
posted by Robot Johnny at 1:16 PM on January 9, 2006

No mandatory welcome to our new space zombie overlords, yet?

slackers.
posted by Atreides at 1:22 PM on January 9, 2006

Robot Johnny, this is SPACE dust, man, SPACE dust. From SPACE.
posted by NationalKato at 1:23 PM on January 9, 2006

I heard there was some skimming from the Stardust from Lefty Rosenthal. NASA button men are going to bury Spilotro in the Utah desert.
posted by Smedleyman at 1:36 PM on January 9, 2006

" The capsule will hurdle through earth’s atmosphere and make a soft landing in the Utah desert."

Note to self: This weekend is a good time to visit Idaho.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 2:02 PM on January 9, 2006

Klatu, Baradda Nickto!
posted by Balisong at 2:43 PM on January 9, 2006

Oh well, it's just Utah.
posted by signalnine at 4:18 PM on January 9, 2006

Hopefully Bruce Dern and his adorable Johnny Eck-like robot pals will be able to murder the rest of the crew before they can jettison the cargo. Then we can all listen to awful Joan Baez ballad in peace.

If not, well, I have a feeling it's a good time to be an Astro Zombie.
posted by Astro Zombie at 10:36 PM on January 9, 2006

"Oh well, it's just Utah"

Oh, yeah? Well, you wait until all those Mormon missionaries turn into mutated space alien Mormon missionaries, you'll be dismissive out the other side of your hat then, by jove.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 8:33 AM on January 10, 2006

Didn't they try this a few months ago in early or mid-2005 and the thing just crashed and they lost the comet material?
posted by exhilaration at 1:52 PM on January 10, 2006