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Friday's Genesis update
On Friday, Sept. 10, officials hold a news conference from Utah to update reporters on the recovery operations to salvage the Genesis sample return mission. (44min 47sec file)
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Genesis recovered
Workers recover the Genesis solar wind samples from the impact crater and take the equipment into a facility for examination. (2min 08sec file)
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Post-impact news briefing
Officials hold a post-landing news conference in Utah a couple hours after Genesis returned to Earth on Sept. 8. (40min 52sec file)
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Capsule first spotted
Powerful tracking cameras spot the Genesis capsule for the first time a couple hundred thousand feet above Earth, prompting applause in the control centers. But just moments later, that joy turned to heartbreak. (1min 02sec file)
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Genesis crash lands
The Genesis sample return capsule tumbles through the sky and impacts the desert floor in Utah after its speed-slowing chute and parafoil failed to deploy for a mid-air recovery by a helicopter. (2min 29sec file)
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Slow-motion
This slow-motion video shows the Genesis capsule slamming into the ground. (1min 06sec file)
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Aerial views of crater
Aerial views show the Genesis capsule half buried in the Utah desert floor after its landing system suffered a failure. (1min 53sec file)
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Recovery helicopters
The primary and backup recovery helicopters take off with escort from a Blackhawk in preparation for the mid-air retrieval of Genesis. (1min 01sec file)
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The original plan
Animation shows how the Genesis spacecraft was supposed to return. Expert narration provided by JPL entry, descent and landing expert Rob Manning. (5min 29sec file)
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Return of Genesis
NASA's Genesis spacecraft will return to Earth on Sept. 8 with a capsule containing samples collected of solar wind. Officials preview the dramatic homecoming in this news conference. (50min 50sec file)
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Genesis status
Mission officials provide a Genesis status briefing from Utah on Sept. 7 -- one day before the craft turns to Earth. (43min 47sec file)
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KSC damage report
Director of the Kennedy Space Center, Jim Kennedy, briefs reports on the initial hurricane damage inspections at the spaceport on MOnday, Sept. 6. (24min 00sec file)
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Spacewalk highlights
This movie captues the highlights from the fourth spacewalk by space station Expedition 9 commander Gennady Padalka and flight engineer Mike Fincke. (3min 33sec file)
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Preview of ISS spacewalk
NASA mission managers preview the upcoming fourth and final spacewalk by the Expedition 9 crew aboard the international space station. (50min 01sec file)
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Shuttles prepped for Frances
Workers close the payload bay doors, retract the landing gear and secure NASA's space shuttles in hangars at Kennedy Space Center to ride out Hurricane Frances. (3min 48sec file)
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Station pieces bagged
Modules and equipment awaiting launch to the International Space Station are covered with bags inside the processing facility at Kennedy Space Center as added protection from Hurricane Frances. (51sec file)
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Atlas blasts off
Lockheed Martin's last Atlas 2AS rocket blasts off from Cape Canaveral carrying a classified National Reconnaissance Office spacecraft. (3min 59sec file)
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Salute to pad 36A
The Atlas launch team in the Complex 36 Blockhouse celebrate the history of pad 36A in a post-launch toast. The Atlas 2AS rocket flight was the last to launch from the pad, which entered service in 1962. (2min 09sec file)
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Mission success
The classified NRO payload is deployed from the Centaur upper stage to successfully complete the launch. (1min 56sec file)
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Scientists optimistic about salvaging Genesis mission
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: September 10, 2004

Two days after a spacecraft carrying samples of the solar wind crashed into the Utah desert, scientists are increasingly optimistic about accomplishing most, if not all, of the mission's primary science objectives.

Spaceflight Now Plus
Additional coverage for subscribers:
AUDIO: TODAY'S STATUS NEWS CONFERENCE QT
VIDEO: WORKERS INSPECT THE SCIENCE CANISTER QT

VIDEO: TRACKING CAMERAS FIRST SPOT CAPSULE DURING DESCENT QT
VIDEO: GENESIS CAPSULE TUMBLES TO A HIGH-SPEED IMPACT QT
VIDEO: SLOW-MOTION VIEW OF CAPSULE SLAMMING INTO GROUND QT
VIDEO: AERIAL VIEWS OF CAPSULE HALF BURIED IN IMPACT CRATER QT
VIDEO: NARRATED ANIMATION SHOWS ORIGINAL RETURN PLAN QT
VIDEO: POST-IMPACT NEWS CONFERENCE QT
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"We're really quite confident we can still achieve a high degree of success from a science point of view," said Roger Wiens, a researcher at the Los Alamos National Laboratory's Space and Atmospheric Sciences Group.

The $264 million Genesis mission was launched in 2001 to capture samples of the solar wind, made up of electrons, protons and trace amounts of various atomic nuclei blown away from the sun's outer atmosphere.

By determining the actual concentrations of various atomic particles in the tenuous wind, scientists hope to refine current theories about the composition of the original cloud of gas and dust that coalesced to form the solar system and to gain insights into how the sun and its retinue of planets evolved.

Genesis was equipped with five solar wind sample collector panels made up of materials selected because of their suitability to capture specific types of atomic particles. A primary objective of the mission was to collect different isotopes of oxygen in a so-called "concentrator."

To protect the fragile collectors from breaking, the Genesis sample return canister was designed to descend under a large parafoil before being plucked out of the sky by a helicopter.

Genesis spent 27 months collecting solar wind samples in deep space before heading back to Earth last April. The sample canister re-entered Earth's atmosphere Wednesday, but its braking parachutes never deployed and the canister hit the ground at some 193 mph, burying itself halfway in the desert soil. The return vehicle's inner sample canister ruptured on impact.

Fearing the worst, engineers peeking inside the canister, using flashlights and mirrors, were amazed at what they found.

"We were rather demoralized by the events of last Wednesday," said Don Sevilla, the lead payload recovery engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "But we have our patient in our processing facility and we are being meticulous in our investigation of it before we start peeling back the layers of the onion.

"I can tell you that yesterday morning, we had great cause for optimism in that exploring into the canister with flashlight and a small mirror on a stick, we were able to find one of our primary science materials, which is the concentrator target, and it appears intact.

"There is also another target material, called gold foil, that we have determined to be in very good condition and so we have great cause for some sense of recovery here, that things are looking much better today than they felt on Wednesday.

Said Wiens: "The science team is really excited about having these materials intact, or mostly intact. With these samples brought back from space, we should be able to meet many, if not all of our primary science goals.

"The concentrator was designed to help us achieve our number one science objective, and that is measuring the oxygen isotope composition of the sun, which will help us understand some of the details about how our solar system was formed. These samples appear to be intact. Our second, third and fourth goals should also be met as we have samples to address these issues as well.

A major concern, however, is contamination from particles in Earth's atmosphere. No attempts will be made to study fragments of solar wind collector material until extensive tests have been conducted to determine the most effective techniques for removing contamination.

"It's actually quite amazing for the amount of breach of our canister, how visibly clean it is inside," Sevilla said. "The SRC, the sample return canister, has been broken up pretty badly and there's a fair amount of dirt. But the very contamination-sensitive materials inside the canister, we're not talking about great clods of dirt. There is still polished metal, looking very pretty inside our rather ugly patient."

In the near term, the smashed-up sample return canister will remain at the Utah Test and Training Range until engineers determine how best to transfer it to an ultra-clean facility at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

"We're working by the scientific method and preserving this precious material," Sevilla said. "You can be sure the collector materials we have are not going to be touched until we know how to keep them safe. ... This is something that's going to take months."

Two independent investigations teams are being formed to look into the Genesis re-entry failure. It's not yet known what went wrong Wednesday, but preliminary examination of the remains of the sample canister show the parachute system never received commands to fire.

Officials would not speculate on what components could have contributed to the accident and they did not mention a critical battery in the canister that ran too hot early in the mission because of a radiator problem.

"All we know today is that the message (to deploy the initial parachute) apparently did not arrive at the devices that were supposed to deploy the chute," said Gentry Lee, a senior engineer at JPL's planetary systems division. "Any identification of any root cause beyond that at this stage would be speculation and there are people who will be investigating this in great detail in the near future."

Also studying the Genesis failure will be engineers with NASA's Stardust mission, which will return to Earth in January 2006 carrying samples of a comet. The Stardust sample canister is scheduled to make a parachute descent to the same Utah test facility, hitting the ground at about 10 mph. No helicopters are required, but its parachutes are.

"The Stardust mission is already starting an examination of the lessons learned from Genesis," Lee said. "This will be a long process and there will be some things that can be done and some things that can't. It is, after all, flying and there's nothing that can be done about the overall design. It will be a question of how to maximize the probability of success given what has been learned from Genesis."