Thank you for visiting the Deep Space 1 mission status information site, among the most popular logged status reports in the Milky Way galaxy on this technology validation mission. This message was logged in at 4:40 pm Pacific Time on Saturday, October 31.

Deep Space 1 continues to perform extremely well. On Friday the spacecraft successfully executed a large turn to point the ion engine near the Sun. The resultant heating caused any contaminants that might interfere with its operation to bake off. While the spacecraft remained in that orientation, a small amount of xenon for the ion propulsion system was allowed to flow through the system to assure there are no blockages. The spacecraft turned back this afternoon. Following that, in an early Halloween celebration, the operations team conducted the first of two characterizations of the pair of SCARLET solar arrays, provided to NASA by the BMDO. This activity was originally scheduled for Sunday. The second more complex characterization of this advanced technology is still planned for tomorrow.

Most activities next week will continue to be geared toward preparing the ion propulsion system for the first test of thrusting, currently planned for November 9 at the earliest.

Deep Space 1 is now more than three times as far away as the moon.