All the engineers who built it seemed to be happy. It's very strong.

The capsule's return is probably the simplest of all the things Stardust has done and has the least risk. Nonetheless, it has to work.

The fundamental reason for this mission is that we are collecting what we believe are the best preserved samples of the formation of our solar system and they are preserved because they formed these comet bodies beyond the major planets out beyond Neptune.

The imaging was a bonus, but boy, what a bonus.

This is a history project. We are going to the edge of the solar system, collecting the original building blocks of the planets and bringing them back to our labs.

These are literally the building blocks of our planetary system.

These are literally the building blocks of our planetary system. All of the atoms in our bodies - the carbon atoms, the oxygen, the nitrogen, potassium, calcium and so forth - all of those atoms were in stardust grains like those coming out of the comet now before the solar system formed.

These are literally the building blocks of our planetary system. Personally, I feel a strong attachment to this thing and we should all feel a strong attachment to it because the fact is all the atoms in our bodies -- the carbon atoms and the oxygen, nitrogen, potassium and calcium and so forth -- all those atoms were in stardust rings ... before the solar system formed.

You can't see them with the unaided eye (but) with the aided eye (through a microscope) you can see everything. A little particle blown up to high magnification is like working on an entire state! It's amazing.

In recent decades, spacecraft have passed fairly close to comets and provided us with excellent data. Stardust, however, marks the first time that we have ever collected samples from a comet and brought them back to Earth for study.