Stardust mission at comet Wild 2, illustration. Stardust was a NASA mission that launched in 1999 and used an aerogel collector to sample dust while passing through the tail and coma of comet Wild 2 (81P/Wild) in January 2004, passing within 236 kilometres of its core. The Stardust sample was returned to Earth in January 2006. Several studies have been made of the several thousand cometary and interstellar dust particles collected and returned by the Stardust mission.