CONTOUR
A mission to compare comets that was lost six weeks after launch.
Key facts
- Agency
- NASA (United States)
- Type of mission
- Comet flybys (lost)
- Target
- Comets 2P/Encke and 73P/Schwassmann–Wachmann 3
- Launched
- 3 July 2002
- Status
- Lost 2002
CONTOUR, the Comet Nucleus Tour, was designed to show how different comets are from each other. It was meant to fly past two comets, 2P/Encke in 2003 and 73P/Schwassmann–Wachmann 3 in 2006, and perhaps a third, taking close pictures and analysing their dust.
What happened
CONTOUR launched on 3 July 2002 into an orbit around Earth. On 15 August 2002 it fired its solid rocket motor to leave Earth's orbit. Contact was never regained. Telescopes then found what appeared to be several pieces travelling along the planned path. The investigation concluded that the spacecraft was probably damaged by heat from its own rocket exhaust during the burn.
The comets it would have visited
Both targets matter to meteor watchers. Comet Encke has the shortest orbit of any bright comet, about 3.3 years, and is linked to the Taurid meteor showers of October and November, which are famous for slow, bright fireballs.
Comet Schwassmann–Wachmann 3 broke into several pieces in 1995 and dozens more in 2006, just when CONTOUR would have arrived. Its fragments shed the dust that produced a burst of Tau Herculid meteors in 2022.
Lessons
The loss led to tighter testing of how rocket motors and spacecraft heat each other. It is also a reminder that many of the missions on this site succeeded only because of hard lessons learned on missions that failed.
Key dates
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| 3 July 2002 | CONTOUR launched on a Delta II rocket. |
| 15 August 2002 | The spacecraft was lost during the engine burn to leave Earth orbit. |
See where this mission fits among all the others in the mission timeline.
Did you know?
Comet Encke was only the second comet, after Halley's, found to return regularly.
Schwassmann–Wachmann 3 broke into more than 60 pieces in 2006.
Related pages
Comets connected with this mission: Comet Encke, Comet Schwassmann–Wachmann 3. See all comets.