Deep Space 1
Deep Space 1 — a NASA technology test launched on 24 October 1998: in JPL's words the first interplanetary spacecraft to use an ion engine, and the first to navigate itself autonomously in deep space. It flew past the asteroid 9969 Braille on 29 July 1999, about 26 km away (27 km in JPL's figure), and on 22 September 2001 passed 2,171 km from the nucleus of comet 19P/Borrelly and photographed it. It was switched off on 18 December 2001, its ion engine having run for more than 16,000 hours.
Key facts
Mission & specifications
Mission
- Operator
- NASA / JPL
- Launched
- October 24, 1998
- Status
- Completed
Trajectory
- Current speed
- 24.8 km/s
- Computed from the cached state vector
- Distance from the Sun
- 1.39 AU
- Computed from the cached position
- Distance from Earth
- 2.36 AU
- Computed from cached positions
- Distance from Mercury
- 1.5 AU
- Computed from cached positions
Mission
Deep Space 1 was the first mission of NASA's New Millennium Program, which flew risky new technology to test it in space. It was launched on a Delta II 7326 from Cape Canaveral on 24 October 1998 at 12:08 UTC. Its chief new technology was a xenon ion engine: in JPL's words it was the first interplanetary spacecraft to use one, and its optical navigation system, which steered by its own pictures of asteroids, was the first autonomous navigation in deep space. On 29 July 1999 it flew past the asteroid 9969 Braille at about 15.5 km/s, about 26 km away (27 km in JPL's figure). A tracking problem kept it from photographing the asteroid on the way in; it returned two black-and-white images and a dozen spectra from about 14,000 km on the way out. Its primary mission ended that September. In November 1999 its star tracker failed. JPL gave it an extended mission to comet 19P/Borrelly, and on 22 September 2001 it passed 2,171 km from the nucleus at 16.58 km/s and photographed it. On 18 December 2001, at about 20:00 UTC, its ion engine was switched off, having run for more than 16,000 hours (16,265 or 16,246 in NASA's accounts), and the mission ended. It is in orbit around the Sun.
- 1998Deep Space 1 launches on a Delta II rocketLaunch
To test an ion engine and autonomous navigation in deep space.
NSSDCA's figure and JPL's; it returns two images from about 14,000 km.
From the nucleus, which it photographs.
- 2001Its ion engine is switched offMission end
After more than 16,000 hours.
Images
Images from open archives · credit shown per image