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Mission statement
Create research opportunities in airborne astronomy, especially for the study of natural and artificial meteors and meteor showers. Involve the public in missions of exploration.
Science themes:
- How do comets and their meteor showers originate and evolve?
- What role did meteoric matter play in the prebiotic evolution of life?
- What comets can threaten life on Earth?
- What are the physical conditions during the re-entry of spacecraft?
- Real-time reports: Protect spacecraft from meteoroid impacts.
In preparation:
Hayabusa re-entry
Website.
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2010The re-entry of the Hayabusa sample return capsule as a system field test for a thermal protection system, and of Hayabusa itself as a study of meteoroid fragmentation.
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Impact and recovery of 2008 TC3
Website.
Workshop.
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2009The recovery of meteorites from the impact of the first asteroid to be discovered prior to impacting the Earth.
[#62 news story in science of 2009 - Discovery Magazine]
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Legacy image
Legacy image
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ATV-1 "Jules Verne" MAC mission
Website
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2008An international multi-instrument airborne campaign to monitor the safe reentry of ESA's new Automated Transfer Vehicle over the south Pacific ocean during its maiden voyage in 2008.
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Legacy image
[#3 Best astronomy picture of 2008 - Discovery Space]
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Gulfstream V meteor shower missions
website
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2008Study of the annual Quadrantid shower to determine the influence of Jupiter on the shower and whether the shower can have been created in 1490 AD.
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Legacy image
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2007An otherwise minor shower was expected to become strong with the imminent return of comet 8P/Tuttle.
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website
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Bright Ursid Meteor Dec 22, 2007
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website
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2007An outburst of Aurigid meteors dating from 4 A.D.. A brief but spectacular outburst of meteors was observed from two parallel flying Gulfstream V aircraft en route from Utah to California.
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Night of the mission
Legacy image
Legacy image
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Hyperseed MAC
Website
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2006The fiery return of the Stardust Sample Return Capsule was observed from the Nevada/Utah border from NASA's DC-8 Airborne Laboratory. Observers recorded a spectacular video of the entry, as well as signatures of the shock emissions, hot surface, white paint, and the ablating heat shield material.
[#1 News story in astronomy - Astronomy magazine]
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Fiery reentry of the Stardust sample return capsule
Legacy video by partipant Dr. Mike Taylor of Utah State University.
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Website
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2004During this final mission of the USAF FISTA aircraft, observers recorded how hot the Genesis Sample Return Capsule got before it crashed on the Utah salt flats due to a failed parachute opening.
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Back at Offutt AFB
Legacy image
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SOFIA Upper Deck Research Facility
Website
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2004Workshop to discuss a future research facility on the upper deck of the SOFIA Infrared Airborne Observatory.
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SOFIA S.U.R.F. logo |
Leonid MAC
| The Leonid MAC logo: a silhouetted human reaches beyond the limits of our knowledge, grasping toward the tail
of a comet. The orange stripe represents an upper region of the atmosphere where meteors vaporize and leave atomic debris behind that is responsible for the faint orange
glow of Earth's natural airglow layer. |
Website
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2002The final
meteor storms in this Leonid storm season
double peaked over Europe and Northern America. Both storms were observed
as planned during a flight from Torrejon, Spain, to Omaha, Nebraska. Aurora
created a scenic background for a blizzard of tiny meteors.
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Back at Offutt AFB
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2001The most beautiful of
all meteor storms in the Leonid storm season double-peaked
over Northern America and the western Pacific. The 2001 Leonid MAC covered
the first peak in a mission over the continental USA from Alabama to California.
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Website
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Proud at dawn!
Legacy image
[#1 News story in astronomy - Astronomy magazine]
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Website
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2000
No Leonid MAC mission because of relatively low meteor shower rates.
Airborne effort limited to small Cessna aircraft used to escape bad Florida weather and
moon light. Ground-based observers encounter the
1932 and 1866 dust trail on November 16/17 and 17/18.
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 Onboard the Cessna aircraft.
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1999The 1999 Leonid MAC mission patch features the flags of participating nations,
both nations from which participants originate as nations that are visited on our route.
The patch illustrates the multi-national and multi-instrument nature of the campaign,
symoblizing the global impact of meteoroids on satellite safety and the global
implications of our search for the origins of life. |
Website
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 Meteor
flux counter wearing video headset display.
Legacy image
Legacy image
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Website
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1998November 1998: the first airborne mission in this campaign executed over Okinawa, Japan.
This was NASA's first Astrobiology mission.
The mission featured the NSF/NCAR "Electra", with a 2-beam iron lidar of the University
of Illinois, and the USAF/452nd FTS "FISTA". |  At work during1998 mission.
Legacy image
Legacy image
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1997 Leonids:
Legacy image
1995 Leonids:
Legacy image
+ Legacy image
Other images:
Legacy image - meteor in slit of Very Large Telescope
Legacy image - alpha Monocerotids
Legacy image - NEAR passing by Earth
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