NASA's STARDUST mission is underway. The spacecraft's prime objective is to collect samples of cometary material, and return them for study back on Earth.

Deep Impact will be the first mission to make a spectacular football stadium-sized crater 7-15 stories deep into a speeding comet.

The European Space Agency is also planning a comet mission. The Rosetta spacecraft will launch sometime in 2004, and is intended to rendezvous for a close look at a comet's nucleus.

Two years after meeting its primary objectives, NASA's Deep Space 1 spacecraft flew past comet Borrelly and captured some of the best images of a comet nucleus to date.

Sky and Telescope Magazine's Comet Page is full of information and useful links - a terrific jumping-off point for your cometary explorations.

Preview the materials used in the McAuliffe/Challenger Center's current mission scenario, RENDEZVOUS WITH A COMET!