All the excitement about the varying successes of recent (the last 2 weeks) Mars probe activities has somewhat overshadowed yet another amazing mission, one that's been in the sky since 1999 - Stardust. On 1/2/04, Stardust flew through the tail of a comet and collected samples that will be returned to Earth for study. This is the first time any mission has collected samples from an off-world body and returned it to Earth since the lunar missions.

It's a very exciting time to be an American and take pride in the space program again. The last few years haven't reflected well on NASA and ancillary programs: the loss of the Pathfinder probes to Mars several years ago, the loss of the space shuttle Columbia in its return to Earth not even a year ago. But it appears that we learn from these mishaps and better the program as a result. In the last six months, Japan has lost a probe destined for Mars, and it appears that the European effort has lost the lander Beagle 2, despite the successful deployment of the orbiting Mars Express.

I for one am looking forward to the arrival of the Opportunity probe in just under 3 weeks. And I'm very anxious to see what was collected from the comet Wild-2 by Stardust. That's going to be a long 4 years to wait for the comet chaser to return!