On the morning of 15 January 2006, the Stardust capsule successfully landed at the Utah Test and Training Range in northwest Utah, returning cometary samples from the comet Wild-2. An overview of the entry, descent, and landing trajectory analysis that was performed for targeting during the mission operations phase upon final approach to Earth is described. The final orbit determination solution produced an inertial entry flight-path angle of -8.21 deg (the desired nominal value) with a 3-σ uncertainty of ±0.0017 deg (2% of the requirement). The navigation and entry, descent, and landing operations effort accurately delivered the entry capsule to the desired landing site. The final landing location was 8.1 km from the target, which was well within the allowable landing area. Overall, the Earth approach operation procedures worked well and there were no issues (logistically or performance-based) that arose. As a result, the process of targeting a capsule from an interplanetary trajectory and accurately landing it on Earth was successfully demonstrated.
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