Two NASA probes well past their prime have a fresh lease on life and new missions ahead.

BOULDER, Colorado – The Flyby spacecraft used in NASA’s Deep Impact mission to comet Tempel 1 is to be powered into a new trajectory today – a maneuver that could allow it to explore yet another comet in years to come.

BOULDER, Colorado – Following its smashing success earlier this month with comet Tempel 1, the Deep Impact Flyby spacecraft is being readied for potential retargeting to yet another scientific destination.

MOSCOW (AP) -- NASA's comet-smashing mission raised more than cosmic dust – it also brought a lawsuit from a Russian astrologer. A Moscow court has postponed hearings.

Deep Impact scientists and engineers are lauding their mission’s successful collision with Comet Tempel 1 and are already drawing some conclusions about the icy wanderer.

PASADENA -- The Fourth of July began with a bang here early Monday morning as NASA’s Deep Impact mission collided with history.

NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft has let loose a probe destined to crash into a comet in what researchers hope will be an explosive Fourth of July in space.

You don’t have to be a NASA scientist to grab a front row seat when the space agency’s Deep Impact spacecraft fires a probe into a comet on July 4.

PASADENA -- With a little more than two days left in its six-month journey, managers for NASA’s Deep Impact mission said the spacecraft is on course to make its historic encounter with a comet late Sunday evening.

After the craft observes the collision of its probe with comet Tempel 1, it may get a new job.

NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft has observed a massive, short-lived outburst of ice or other particles from comet Tempel 1.

BOULDER, Colorado – Skywatchers might be treated to celestial fireworks unlike anything witnessed before as NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft tangles with Comet Tempel 1 on July 4.

Pictures of comet Tempel 1 reveal a plume of material likely created by a crack in the nucleus. The activity bodes well for the Deep Impact mission.

When it comes to slamming space probes into comets, astronomers – like the Boy Scouts – prefer to be prepared.

NASA scientists want to learn all they can about comet Tempel 1 before they drive a stake into its heart. Today they improved their view with the first image of the comet’s nucleus.

BALTIMORE (AP) -- The Hubble Space Telescope will be watching when the University of Maryland's Deep Impact space probe crashes into a comet July 4, setting off a cosmic firework that may be visible on Earth.

The scientists behind NASA’s Deep Impact mission said Thursday they hope to fix the spacecraft’s blurry vision by using a mathematical process on the images it captures after they have been transmitted to Earth.

To hit a dark object traveling thousands of miles per hour in the void of space, it helps to know exactly how big your target is.

CAPE CANAVERAL - Deep Impact is on track to smash its impactor into a comet July 4, but its high-resolution camera's focus is still imperfect.

NASA's Deep Impact probe has photographed the comet it will soon slam into.

The minor problem might be fixed and is not expected to ruin the mission either way.

PASADENA, California (AP) -- NASA's Deep Impact comet-busting spacecraft emerged from "safe mode'' and was operating normally, the space agency said.

A NASA probe aimed at smacking a comet this summer began its voyage today, rocketing into space in a successful afternoon launch.

Up-to-the minute launch coverage of NASA's Deep Impact comet mission from SpaceFlightNow.

NASA's first mission to purposely destroy a spacecraft in the name of science is poised to rocket skyward Wednesday, the start of the anticipated six-month Deep Impact mission to crash into a comet.

The two space probes that make up NASA's Deep Impact mission are carrying the hopes of space agency and university researchers hoping to understand the inner secrets of comets.

NASA and university astronomers are eagerly awaiting the launch of a space probe bound to collide with a comet and hopefully give researchers their first glimpse inside the icy wanderers that roam the solar system.

BOULDER, COLORADO -- Engineers here at Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation are readying NASA’s Deep Impact mission for shipping this month to Cape Canaveral, Florida.

NASA's approval today of the $279 million Deep Impact mission means humanity will no longer be only on the receiving end of comet impacts. Now we're going to go and slam into a comet ourselves. Or at least send a robot to do it.

A myriad of stunning images produced from Deep Impact’s collision with Tempel 1.

Dr. Jay Melosh, Deep Impact Mission Co-Investigator, wanted to poke a comet to see what would flies out. Last July 4th, he got his chance. The results may revolutionize what we know about our Solar System.

LIVE Coverage of NASA's Deep Impact Mission to Comet Tempel 1.

Download and go! Grab your telescope or binoculars and with these easy directions and star charts you can begin to hunt Tempel 1.

What you'll need to find the comet, after NASA smashes a spacecraft into it and it brightens significantly in the night sky.

This July 4th, the agency’s Impactor spacecraft—an 820-pound copper probe shaped like your typical living room coffee table—will go up against the comet Tempel 1, a massive hunk of rock and ice about the size of Washington D.C.

Droplets from asteroid impact formed in giant Earth-circling vapor plume, leaving clues to the dinosaur-killing catastrophe.

Pluto might have been hit long ago by a virtual twin in a collision that created the ninth planet's moon Charon, according to a new computer simulation.

To celebrate the SOHO spacecraft's comet-hunting ability, its operators have begun a contest for the public to pick the timing of the discovery of No. 1,000.

The odds of impact in the year 2029 by a recently discovered asteroid are unlikely to change much in the next few weeks, astronomers said Monday.

Astronomers have pieced together their first direct evidence that solar storms can wreck havoc with comets, temporarily decimating their ion tails in a collision of highly charged particles.

Jupiter's atmosphere still contains remnants of a comet impact from a decade ago, but scientists said last week they are puzzled by how two substances have spread into different locations.

The presumed worlds are smaller than Jupiter and could be as tiny as Pluto, new observations suggest.

A pair of 35-million-year-old craters on Earth long thought to have been carved by comets now appears to be the result of a broken asteroid that generated a shower of debris over millions of years.

SPACE.com's full coverage of the DS1/Borrelly mission and findings.

SPACE.com's complete collection of stories, image galleries and multimedia files from the NEAR spacecraft's encounter with Asteroid in 2001.