NASA Spacecraft Pinpoints Where the Wild Thing Is.

Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

PASADENA, Calif., Dec. 1 (AScribe Newswire) -- Forty-nine days before its historic rendezvous with a comet, NASA's Stardust spacecraft successfully photographed its quarry, comet Wild 2 (pronounced Vilt-2), from 25 million kilometers (15.5 million miles) away. The image, the first of many comet portraits it will take over the next four weeks, will aid Stardust's navigators and scientists as they plot their final trajectory toward a Jan. 2, 2004, flyby and collection of samples from Wild 2.

"Christmas came early this year," said Project Manager Tom Duxbury at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "Our job is to …