Universe Today - September 19, 2001

Now only 11 million kilometres away from its final destination, the Mars Odyssey spacecraft fired its thrusters briefly to fine tune its flight path. This trajectory correction maneuver, the third so far during the journey, was performed on Saturday night by firing its thrusters for 12 seconds. Mars Odyssey launched in April, and is expected to reach the Red Planet on October 23.

NASA technicians are getting ready for their next space encounter. On September 22, Deep Space 1 will hurtle past Comet Borrelly, getting as close as 2,000 kilometres to take photographs and scientific measurements. Project managers expect the fragile craft will be hit with dust and debris that may destroy it - but that's a risk they're willing to take to get this close.

NASA announced that the Kennedy Space Center is now doing bus tours of the facilities again; however, with tightened security and fewer stops along the route. Visitors are asked to leave bags and coolers in the car, and guards are checking cameras, pagers and cellular phones. Attendance has understandably been down this week.