December 17, 2001                                                              

NASA BIDS FAREWELL TO THE SUCCESSFUL DEEP SPACE 1 MISSION

     NASA's adventurous Deep Space 1 mission, which 
successfully tested 12 high-risk, advanced space technologies 
and captured the best images ever taken of a comet, will come 
to an end Dec. 18, 2001. 

     "American taxpayers can truly be proud of Deep Space 1," 
said Dr. Colleen Hartman, Director of NASA's Solar System 
Exploration Division, Washington, D.C. "It was originally 
designed to be an 11-month mission, but things were going so 
well that we kept it going for a few more years to continue 
testing its remarkable ion engine and, as a bonus, to get 
close-up images of a comet. By the time we turn its engines 
off tomorrow, Deep Space 1 will have earned an honored place 
in space exploration history."

     Shortly after 12 noon PST Tuesday, engineers will send a 
final command turning off the ion engine, which has used up 90 
percent of its xenon fuel. After Earth's final goodbye, the 
spacecraft will remain in orbit around the Sun, operating on 
its own. Its radio receiver will be left turned on, in case 
future generations want to contact the spacecraft. 

     "Deep Space 1 is a true success story," said Dr. Charles 
Elachi, director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 
Pasadena, Calif. "We are proud that future generations of 
spacecraft will benefit from its accomplishments."

     Deep Space 1 leaves the technologies it flight-tested as 
legacies for future missions, which would have been impossible 
without its trailblazing technology tests. Enabling spacecraft 
to travel faster and farther than ever before, Deep Space 1's 
ion engine was once a science fiction dream. Now this ion 
engine has accumulated over 670 days of operating time.  
Future Mars missions may use this technology to return samples 
from the Red Planet.

     Deep Space 1's successful test of autonomous navigation 
software was a major step in the path of artificial 
intelligence for spacecraft. Using images of asteroids and 
stars collected by the onboard camera, the spacecraft was able 
to compute and correct its course without relying on human 
controllers on Earth. NASA's Deep Impact mission will use a 
system based on autonomous navigation to reach the nucleus of 
comet Tempel 1. 

     Within nine months after launch, Deep Space 1 had successfully 
tested all 12 new technologies. As a bonus, near the end of the 
primary mission, Deep Space 1 flew by asteroid Braille. In late 
1999, its primary mission complete, Deep Space 1's star tracker 
failed to operate. So in early 2000, engineers successfully 
reconfigured the spacecraft from 300 million kilometers (185 
million miles) away to rescue it for a daring extended mission to 
encounter comet Borrelly. 

     In September 2001, Deep Space 1 passed just 2,171 kilometers 
(1,349 miles) from the inner icy nucleus of comet Borrelly, 
snapping the highest-resolution pictures ever of a comet. The 
daring flyby yielded new data and movies of the comet's nucleus 
that will revolutionize the study of comets.  

     Launched on October 24, 1998, Deep Space 1 was designed 
and built in just three years, the shortest development time 
for any interplanetary spacecraft NASA has flown in the modern 
age. It was the first mission in NASA's New Millennium 
program. In addition to its technical achievements, Deep Space 
1 is an ambassador of Earthlings' goodwill, carrying with it a 
compact disc of children's drawings and engineers' thoughts. 

     "I'm not sad it's ending, I'm happy it accomplished so 
much," said Dr. Marc Rayman, Deep Space 1 project manager at  
JPL. "I think it inspired many people who saw the mission as 
NASA and JPL at our best -- bold, exciting, resourceful and 
productive."

     JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology 
in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Office of Space 
Science, Washington, D.C. Spectrum Astro Inc., Gilbert, Ariz., 
was JPL's primary industrial partner in spacecraft 
development.


MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Contact: Martha J. Heil  818-354-0850