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Delta II | Deep Impact (DIF)

Deep Impact (DIF)

Launch Successful

Launch Details

Date: 12 Jan 2005, 06:47 pm UTC

Rocket: Delta II (Delta)

Provider: United States Air Force

Mission

Type: Planetary Science

Orbit: Asteroid

Pad: Space Launch Complex 17B, Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

Mission Description

Deep Impact was to fly by Comet 9P/Tempel-1 on 3 July 2005. An impacter it released was to hit the comet on 4 July at 10.2 km/s, producing a crater and ejecta plume that would allow the flyby spacecraft to determine the composition and structure of the comet's nucleus.