Space

DATE=01/02/04

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=U-S COMET FLYBY (S)

NUMBER=2-311436

BYLINE=DAVID McALARY

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

CONTENT=

INTERNET=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: A U-S spacecraft has flown close to a comet and, for the first time, collected samples for return for study on Earth. V-O-A's David McAlary reports.

TEXT: /// CHEERS & APPLAUSE /// [ESTABLISH, THEN FADE UNDER]

Cheers broke out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California as ground controllers received data showing that the Stardust spacecraft survived a hail of speeding dust particles around comet Wild-Two (pron. VILT) nearly 400 million kilometers from Earth.

Scientists want to study comets because they believe they are pristine remnants of the infant solar system with information about its early chemical makeup.

The craft is already transmitting its initial data to Earth - what project manager Tom Duxbury says will be the sharpest images of a comet nucleus even taken.

/// DUXBURY ACT ///

Everything so far has gone by the books [as expected]. We've flown through the worst of it and are still in contact with our spacecraft.

/// END ACT ///

The big scientific reward comes in two years when the Stardust craft is to return a few grams of the primordial comet dust grains to Earth for study. (SIGNED)

NEB/DEM/PT