Deep Impact May 2026

Sadly, in 2013, NASA lost contact with Deep Impact. The cause: a software glitch that left the spacecraft’s antennas misaligned. After months of silence, they gave up. Deep Impact is now a silent relic drifting through the inner solar system, its last command unfulfilled.

Why copper? Because copper doesn’t interfere with spectral analysis of the debris. They didn’t want to confuse comet material with spacecraft material. Elegant. Deep Impact

And it worked. The Deep Impact impactor carried a CD-ROM with 625,000 names of people who signed up online—including a young Elon Musk, a pre-fame Taylor Swift, and the director of the Deep Impact movie. Art met life, and both aimed for a comet. Sadly, in 2013, NASA lost contact with Deep Impact