The Deep Impact Mission flight schedule was approximately 6 months, but the many milestones between early planning and the end of the project last over 6 years. This timeline was created prior to impact with comet Tempel 1.

Learn more about the mission through our Fact Sheet.

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Deep Impact Mission Events
Earth-receive time (in PDT)

July 2, 2005, 11:07 pm: Impactor released into comet's path
July 3, 2005, 9:22 pm: 1st impactor targeting maneuver
July 3, 2005, 10:17 pm: 2nd impactor targeting maneuver
July 3, 2005, 10:39 pm: 3rd impactor targeting maneuver
July 3, 2005, 10:52:24 pm: Impact with Tempel 1
July 3, 2005, 11:05 pm: Flyby goes into shield mode
July 3, 2005, 11:06 pm: Flyby's closest approach to Tempel 1
July 20, 2005: Trajectory Correction Maneuver 8
July 25-29, 2005: Science team retreat
Aug 7-12, 2005: Asteroids, Comets, Meteors triennial meeting
Aug 9, 2005: Deep Impact goes into Deep Sleep
Sep 4-9, 2005: American Astronomical Society, Division of Planetary Sciences
Oct 31 - Nov 4, 2005: Science team meeting
Jan 2006: Delivery of data to Planetary Data System