Douglas Isbell/Donald Savage 
Headquarters, Washington, DC                     January 7, 1999
(Phone:  202/358-1547)

Mary Beth Murrill
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
(Phone:  818/354-5011)

Vince Stricherz
University of Washington, Seattle
(Phone:  206/543-2580)

NOTE TO EDITORS:  N99-2

STARDUST MISSION PRELAUNCH SCIENCE BRIEFING SCHEDULED FOR JANUARY 13 

     Managers and scientists leading the team preparing the 
Stardust spacecraft to gather samples of icy comet dust and return 
them to Earth will conduct a media briefing on the mission and its 
science goals on Wednesday, Jan. 13, at 2 p.m. EST.  The televised 
briefing will originate from NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. 

     Set for launch from Cape Canaveral Air Station, FL, on Feb. 
6, 1999, Stardust will be the first U.S. mission dedicated solely 
to a comet and the first return of extraterrestrial material from 
outside the orbit of the Moon. 

     The primary goal of this Discovery Program mission is to 
collect comet dust and related measurements during a planned close 
encounter with comet Wild 2 (pronounced "Vilt-2") in January 2004.  
Additionally, the Stardust spacecraft will bring back samples of 
interstellar dust particles, recently discovered material 
streaming into the Solar System.  Ground-based analysis of these 
samples after their return in January 2006 should yield important 
insights into the evolution of the Sun and planets, and possibly 
into the origin of life itself. 

     Presenters at the briefing are scheduled to include: 

Dr. Carl Pilcher, science director for Solar System exploration at 
    NASA Headquarters 
Dr. Kenneth Atkins, Stardust project manager at NASA's Jet 
    Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA 
Dr. Donald Brownlee, Stardust principal investigator from the 
    University of Washington, Seattle 
Joseph Vellinga, Stardust program manager at Lockheed Martin 
    Astronautics, Denver, CO 
Dr. John Rummel, Planetary Protection Officer, NASA Headquarters 

     Extensive information on Stardust, including mission-related 
art and images, and a public signature disk attached to the 
spacecraft, is available on the Internet at the following URL: 

                  http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/

     NASA Television is located on GE-2, transponder 9C at 85 
degrees West longitude, vertical polarization, with a frequency of 
3880 Mhz, and audio of 6.8 Mhz.  There will be two-way question-
and-answer capability for media at participating NASA centers.