SPACEPHOTOS

(07/18/2001) -- In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, workers help guide a transportation canister over the Genesis spacecraft in preparation for its move to the pad. Genesis is 7.5 feet (2.3 meters) long and 6.6 feet (2 meters) wide, with a wingspan of solar array 26 feet (7.9 meters) tip to tip. Genesis will be on a robotic NASA space mission to catch a wisp of the raw material of the Sun and return it to Earth with a spectacular mid-air helicopter capture. The sample return capsule is 4.9 feet (1.5 meters) in diameter and 52 inches (1.31 meters) tall. The mission’s goal is to collect and return to Earth just 10 to 20 micrograms -- or the weight of a few grains of salt -- of solar wind, invisible charged particles that flow outward from the Sun. This treasured smidgen of the Sun will be preserved in a special laboratory for study by scientists over the next century in search of answers to fundamental questions about the exact composition of our star and the birth of our solar system. The Genesis launch is scheduled for 12:36 p.m. EDT on July 30 from Launch Complex 17-A, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station