Genesis (remember Genesis?) returns Wednesday, in spectacular fashion:
Two Hollywood stunt pilots and a space capsule full of stardust were on track for a historic mid-air encounter above the Utah desert on Wednesday at the end of a three-year mission to probe the origins of the solar system.
The Genesis spacecraft was expected to swing by Earth at about noon EDT on Wednesday and jettison a capsule containing particles that may yield insights about the early formation of planets.
As the disc-shaped capsule, just five feet in diameter, streaks toward its landing site at the Utah Test & Training Range, the helicopter pilots will try to snatch it out of the sky to avert a rough landing that could damage the samples and delicate instruments on board…
The mid-air retrieval by pilots Cliff Fleming and Dan Rudert, whose resumes include aerial stunts for action films like “Batman” and “Hulk,” will make aviation history by capturing the first man-made object to enter Earth’s atmosphere from outer space, Corwin said.
The two were hired after conventional helicopter pilots declined to attempt the controlled mid-air collision, saying it sounded too much like a stunt, NASA officials said earlier.
After plucking the parachuted capsule from the sky, the pilots must quickly fly it to a clean room at Michael Army Air Field, 20 miles from the landing site.
There, scientists have two hours to remove the scorched heat shield and capsule and purge the sample canister of gases from Earth’s upper atmosphere to prevent contamination, Genesis project manager Don Sweetham said.
The canister and capsule will be trucked to Johnson Space Center in Houston for further preparations before samples are parceled out to laboratories around the world, Sweetham said.