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?

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Legacy image	2008 Study 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.
2007 An otherwise minor shower was expected to become strong with the imminent return of comet 8P/Tuttle.		Bright Ursid Meteor Dec 22, 2007
Legacy image Legacy image	2007 An 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.	Night of the mission

2004 Workshop to discuss a future research facility on the upper deck of the SOFIA Infrared Airborne Observatory.

SOFIA S.U.R.F. logo

	2006 The 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.	Fiery reentry of the Stardust sample return capsule Legacy video by partipant Dr. Mike Taylor of Utah State University.
	2004 During 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.	Back at Offutt AFB Legacy image

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.
	2002 The 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.	Back at Offutt AFB
2001 The 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.		Proud at dawn!
	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.	Onboard the Cessna aircraft.
1999 The 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.		Meteor flux counter wearing video headset display.
	1998 November 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.