Jul 29 1999
From The Space Library
NASA scientists announced that, because the Deep Space 1 spacecraft had aimed its camera incorrectly when it flew within 15 miles (24 kilometers) of a small asteroid named Braille, the craft had failed to capture an image. However, the craft had succeeded in its primary mission to test 12 new technologies during the flyby, thereby validating the instruments' future use in solar-system probes. Deep Space 1 was equipped with "a mind of its own," enabling it to navigate through space without much assistance from ground control. The craft had traveled at 35,000 miles (56,000 kilometers) per hour relative to the asteroid, which was 117 million miles (188 million kilometers) from Earth. The flyby of the Braille asteroid, the final test of Deep Space 1's Autonomous Navigation System, had been the closest any spacecraft had come to an object in our solar system without landing.
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