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EPOXI

Two intriguing investigations -- One flight-proven spacecraft

Gallery

EPOXI Mission Trajectory

image of Mission Trajectory Click for full size image.

Caption: The spacecraft is already in orbit (not shown) around the Sun. This graphic shows its trajectory starting from the 2007 Earth Flyby. After the flyby, the spacecraft will be in an orbit (white circles) that will intersect with comet Hartley 2 (red arc) in 2010. During the flyby, the spacecraft will experience a gravity assist from Earth (blue circle) that will steal some of the orbital energy from the spacecraft. Additional Earth flybys in 2008 and 2009 will refine the orbit even further.

2007 Earth Flyby

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD/GSFC/Tony Farnham