June 8, 2001 — NASA’s Genesis spacecraft, to be launched aboard a Boeing Delta II vehicle on July 30, has arrived at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Shuttle Landing Facility from Denver, Colo., aboard an Air Force C-17 aircraft. The spacecraft was transported to the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility (PHSF) in KSC’s industrial area and installed into the cleanroom, where it will be processed for launch.

Genesis will capture a piece of the Sun: a sample of the ions and elements in the solar wind and bring the samples back to Earth so that scientists can study the exact composition of the Sun and probe the solar system’s origin. By studying the solar wind, scientists will find clues to the formation of the solar system as we know it today.

Now that the Genesis spacecraft is at KSC, processing will begin with a functional test, an electrical systems test of the entire spacecraft and the solar arrays will be deployed. This will be followed on June 7 with a Deep Space Network compatibility test to verify the spacecraft’s communications systems and the radio links associated with the worldwide network of tracking stations.