This Discovery Program bookmark illustrates the human joy of scientific learning acquired through the engineering feat of sending robotic instruments to faraway destinations.  

New Discovery Program bookmark (Click image to enlarge)

The image shows members of the elated Stardust team on Earth, after receiving communications from NASA's Deep Space Network to confirm that their close encounter with a speeding comet was a brilliant success. After traveling 2 billion miles in just under 5 years, the Stardust spacecraft captured samples of comet dust and took the most detailed pictures ever of a comet's surface. The return journey to Earth is now underway, and the sample return capsule will parachute to the ground in January 2006.  

Stardust team members shown are, clockwise from left, Aimee Whalen (Opportunity and Outreach Manager), Dr. Don Brownlee (Principal Investigator), Tom Duxbury (Project Manager), Bob Ryan (Mission Manager), and Rham Bat (Maneuver Analyst).  

The image fades to a beautiful infrared view of space recently taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope and shows the MESSENGER spacecraft and its target Mercury, the Discovery Program's next scheduled launch. 

Discovery Program Bookmark Download bookmark: Discovery Bookmark   (You'll need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view). Download Adobe® Acrobat Reader® *Activities are print-optimized and delivered in portable document format (PDF) files. Adobe® Reader® is required to view and print the files. A free download of Reader® is available at the Adobe® Acrobat Web site.

The back of the bookmark has a brief description of all the Discovery missions and a small image to represent each mission. 

Download this bookmark by clicking on the link to the right.