The missing comet forced them to redirect and race a fifteen‑day window

Space Exploration Stories · Sep 3, 2026 · 18m

A spacecraft racing a repurposed probe toward a two-kilometer comet has a fifteen-day window to catch it at perihelion - did they make it in time?

The missing comet forced them to redirect and race a fifteen‑day window

In this episode, we follow the EPOXI team's scramble after their original target vanished and the decision to redirect the Deep Impact spacecraft toward comet 103P/Hartley. The episode traces the timing, orbital choices, and the risky fifteen‑day alignment that would determine whether the flyby could capture the comet at peak activity.

Person: Don Yeomans

Date: November 4, 2010…