AntarikshPedia
Stardust sample return

2001–2012: Planetary Exploration Becomes Persistent

Stardust sample return

First mission to return cometary material to Earth.

Era 4 of 6 · full record in the catalog

Launch
year known only: 2004
Lead / partner
United States
Target
Comet Wild 2
Category
Comet sample return
Status
Success
Vehicle
unknown
Mass
unknown
Orbit / trajectory
unknown

Why it happened

Stardust sample return flew during 2001–2012: Planetary Exploration Becomes Persistent, as part of United States's work toward comet wild 2. A sourced write-up of the context around this mission is still on the editorial queue; nothing here is invented to fill the gap.

The mission

The full narrative of this mission is pending research and writing. What is recorded so far: First mission to return cometary material to Earth.

Results

First mission to return cometary material to Earth.

Related missions

Stardust samp… Rosetta — competitor Rosetta SpaceShipOne — competitor SpaceShipOne Swift — competitor Swift Hayabusa — competitor Hayabusa

Swift

Success

United States / United Kingdom / Italy · 2004

Sources & image credits

  • Image credit: NASA · license: public-domain (source, checked 2026-08-23)
  • Mission record: AntarikshPedia canonical dataset (data-sources/missions_timeline.md)
  • Specifications reference: NASA NSSDCA Master Catalog