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The 2000's
 Stardust Mission

Stardust Mission
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 6 to 8
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   7.07

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    cosmic, covering, plotted, reentry, racket, spongy, orbit, spiky, canister, spacecraft, atmosphere, extremely, boost, launch, route, gravity
     content words:    Stardust Project, Stardust Mission, On February, Delta II, Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Dust Flux Monitor, Interstellar Dust Analyzer, When Stardust, Air Force

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Stardust Mission
By Sharon Fabian 		  
1     Caption: Stardust's reentry into Earth's atmosphere
 
2     Some people drive trucks for a living. Some people teach sixth grade. But some people -- some people collect stardust.
 
3     That was the job of the scientists on NASA's Stardust Project. They sent a spacecraft, also named Stardust, into outer space to collect dust from a comet. Along the way, the spacecraft also collected stardust from space.
 
4     The scientists were especially interested in the comet dust. They already knew that comets were made of raw materials from the early days of the solar system. A look at comet dust could give them information about what the solar system was like before the planets were formed.
 
5     Work began on the Stardust Mission in 1996. The scientists who designed the spacecraft and plotted its route faced many challenges. They had to decide how close to the comet they could safely fly their spacecraft. They also had to figure out a way to collect comet dust and stardust.

Paragraphs 6 to 14:
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