Workers in the Spacecraft Assembly and Encapsulation Facility 2 check the position of the CONTOUR spacecraft it will be attached.

Workers in the Spacecraft Assembly and Encapsulation Facility 2 check the position of the CONTOUR spacecraft as it is lowered over the apogee kick motor to which it will be attached. CONTOUR will provide the first detailed look into the heart of a comet -- the nucleus. The spacecraft will fly close to at least two comets, Encke and Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, taking pictures of the nucleus while analyzing the gas and dust that surround these rocky, icy building blocks of the solar system. The Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md., built CONTOUR and will also be in control of the spacecraft after launch, scheduled for July 1, 2002, from LC 17A at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station