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		Premium video content for our Spaceflight Now Plus subscribers. Mars orbiter briefing With two weeks until its arrival at the red planet, NASA and Lockheed Martin officials hold this Feb. 24 news conference on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The briefing explains how the MRO spacecraft will fire its engines to enter into orbit around Mars and the mission's scientific goals to examine the planet like never before. Play video: Dial-up \| Broadband Download audio: For iPod STS-8: Night launch The space shuttle program performed its first dazzling nighttime launch with Challenger's August 1983 mission. A cockpit camera mounted beside commander Dick Truly captured amazing footage of night turning to day inside the shuttle from the brilliant flame of ascent. STS-8 also featured the first African-American astronaut, Guion Bluford. Challenger's astronauts tell the story of their six-day mission, which deployed an Indian satellite, used the robot arm to look at the orbiter's belly and examined the glow around the shuttle, during this narrated post-flight film. Small \| Medium \| Large STS-7: America's first woman astronaut The seventh flight of the space shuttle is remembered for breaking the gender barrier for U.S. spaceflight. Sally Ride flew into space and the history books with her historic June 1983 mission, becoming America's first woman astronaut. STS-7 also launched a pair of commercial communications spacecraft, then deployed a small platform fitted with experiments and camera package that captured iconic pictures of Challenger flying above the blue Earth and black void of space. The crew members narrate highlights from the mission in this post-flight film presentation. Small \| Medium \| Large STS-6: Challenger debut The space shuttle program became a two-orbiter fleet on April 4, 1983 when Challenger launched on its maiden voyage from Kennedy Space Center. The STS-6 mission featured the first ever spacewalk from a space shuttle and the deployment of NASA's first Tracking and Data Relay Satellite. The four astronauts narrate a movie of highlights from their five-day mission in this post-flight presentation. Small \| Medium \| Large STS-121 crew press chat Commander Steve Lindsey and his crew, the astronauts set to fly the second post-Columbia test flight, hold an informal news conference with reporters at Kennedy Space Center on Feb. 17. The crew is in Florida to examine hardware and equipment that will be carried on the STS-121 flight of shuttle Discovery. Play video: Dial-up \| Broadband Download audio: For iPod House hearing on NASA NASA Administrator Mike Griffin and his No. 2, Shana Dale, appear before the House Science Committee on Feb. 16 to defend President Bush's proposed 2007 budget for the space agency. Congressmen grill Griffin and Dale about the budget's plans to cut funding for some science programs. Play video STS-5: Commercial era With the four test flights complete, NASA declared the space shuttle a fully operational program. The crews were expanded, commercial payloads were welcomed aboard and the mission plans became much more hectic. This new era began with Columbia's STS-5 flight that launched the ANIK-C3 and SBS-C commercial communications satellites from the shuttle's payload bay. Commander Vance Brand, pilot Bob Overmyer and mission specialists Joe Allen and Bill Lenoir narrate highlights from their November 1982 mission in this post-flight presentation. Small \| Medium \| Large STS-4: Last test flight The developmental test flights of the space shuttle concluded with Columbia's STS-4 mission. Commander Ken Mattingly and pilot Henry Hartsfield spent a week in space examining orbiter systems and running science experiments. The 1982 flight ended on the Fourth of July with President Reagan at the landing site to witness Columbia's return and the new orbiter Challenger leaving for Kennedy Space Center. Watch this STS-4 post-flight crew presentation film. Small \| Medium \| Large STS-3: Unique landing Columbia's STS-3 mission is best remembered in the history books for its conclusion -- the first and so far only landing at the picturesque Northrup Strip at White Sands, New Mexico. In this post-flight presentation film, the crew describes the highlights of the March 1982 mission and shows some of the fun they had in orbit. The commander also tells how he accidentally "popped a wheelie" before bringing the nose gear down to the runway surface. Small \| Medium \| Large STS-2: First reusable spaceship Seven months after the successful maiden voyage of space shuttle Columbia, astronauts Joe Engle and Richard Truly took the orbiter back into space on mission STS-2. The November 12, 1981 launch demonstrated that the space shuttle was the world's first reusable manned spacecraft. Although their mission would be cut short, Engle and Truly performed the first tests of the shuttle's Canadian-made robotic arm. The crew tells the story of the mission in this post-flight presentation. Small \| Medium \| Large STS-1: America's first space shuttle mission The space shuttle era was born on April 12, 1981 when astronauts John Young and Bob Crippen rode Columbia into Earth orbit from Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39A. The two-day flight proved the shuttle could get into space as a rocket and return safely with a runway landing. Following the voyage of STS-1, the two astronauts narrated this film of the mission highlights and told some of their personal thoughts on the flight. Small \| Medium \| Large NASA's 2007 budget NASA Administrator Mike Griffin, along with his science, spaceflight, exploration and aeronautics chiefs, hold this news conference in Washington on February 6 to discuss the agency's proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2007. The budget would give NASA a slight increase in funding over 2006, but it features cuts in some projects to pay for funding shortfalls in the shuttle program. Play video Suit tossed overboard The Expedition 12 crew tosses overboard an old Russian spacesuit loaded with ham radio gear during a spacewalk outside the International Space Station. The eery view of the lifeless suit tumbling into the darkness of space was captured by station cameras. Play video STS-95: John Glenn's return to space The flight of shuttle Discovery in October 1998 captured the public's attention with the triumphant return to space by John Glenn. The legendary astronaut became the first American to orbit the Earth some 36 years earlier. His 9-day shuttle mission focused on science experiments about aging. This post-flight presentation of highlights from the STS-95 mission is narrated by the astronauts. Small \| Medium \| Large STS-71: First Mir docking Space shuttle Atlantis and a multinational crew flew to the Russian space station Mir in June 1995 for the first in a series of joint docking missions, launching a new era of cooperation in space between the United States and Russia that would pave the way for the International Space Station. This post-flight presentation of highlights from the historic STS-71 mission is narrated by the astronauts. Small \| Medium \| Large Challenger anniversary On the 20th anniversary of the space shuttle Challenger tragedy, a memorial service was held at the Kennedy Space Center's Space Mirror. Speakers at the tribute to honor the lost Challenger, Columbia and Apollo 1 astronauts included the widow and son of Challenger commander Francis "Dick" Scobee, officials with the Astronauts Memorial Foundation, two local U.S. Representatives, commander of the first shuttle flight after Challenger and the Kennedy Space Center director. Play video Future Mars rover NASA's next mobile rover that will be sent to the Red Planet is Mars Science Laboratory. Roughly the size of a Mini Cooper car and designed to operate on the Martian surface for two Earth years, this large rover is scheduled for launch in 2009. Project manager Richard Cook unveils a model of the rover and talks about the mission in this video clip. Play video Mars rover anniversary The remarkable rovers Spirit and Opportunity remain alive and well on the surface of the Red Planet, far outlasting their planned 90-day missions. On Jan. 24, the second anniversary of Opportunity's landing, project officials and scientists held this celebration event at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Dialup \| Broadband 1 2 Launch of New Horizons The New Horizons spacecraft begins a voyage across the solar system to explore Pluto and beyond with its successful launch January 19 aboard a Lockheed Martin Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Full coverage Stardust comes home NASA's Stardust spacecraft returns samples of cometary dust to Earth with its safe landing in Utah on January 15. Full coverage NASA administrator NASA Administrator Mike Griffin and his deputy Shana Dale hold a news conference at Kennedy Space Center in the final hours of the countdown to the New Horizons launch. Questions from reporters ranged from the Pluto-bound mission, the agency's budget and the space shuttle program. Dialup \| Broadband \| iPod STS-32: LDEF retrieval Space shuttle Columbia's mission in January 1990 sought to retrieve the Long Duration Exposure Facility -- a bus-size platform loaded with 57 experiments -- that had been put into orbit six years earlier. LDEF was supposed to be picked up within a year of its launch. But plans changed and then the Challenger accident occurred. Columbia's STS-32 crew got into space, deployed a Navy communications satellite, then fulfilled their LDEF recovery mission, carried out a host of medical tests and returned to Earth with a nighttime touchdown in the California desert. The crew presents this post-flight film of mission highlights. Small \| Medium \| Large NASA through the decades This film looks at the highlights in NASA's history from its creation in the 1950s, through the glory days of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, birth of the space shuttle and the loss of Challenger, launch of Hubble and much more. Small \| Medium \| Large Become a subscriber More video

News Archive: March 1-31

Soyuz ferries three-man crew to the space station Russian commander Pavel Vinogradov, NASA flight engineer Jeffrey Williams and Brazilian astronaut Marcos Pontes docked with the international space station late Friday, two days after blastoff Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. FULL STORY

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Mars Reconnaissance Craft begins adjusting orbit NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has begun a crucial six-month campaign to gradually shrink its orbit into the best geometry for the mission's science work. This period of "aerobraking" uses friction with the tenuous upper atmosphere to transform the spacecraft's very elongated 35-hour orbit to the nearly circular two-hour orbit needed for the mission's science observations. FULL STORY

New map of Milky Way charts where stars are born A team of astronomers from Boston University's Institute for Astrophysical Research has produced the clearest map to-date of the giant gas clouds in the Milky Way that serve as the birthplaces of stars. Using a powerful telescope, the astronomers tracked emissions of a rare form of carbon monoxide to chart a portion of our home galaxy and its star-forming molecular clouds. FULL STORY

New Horizons payload gets high marks on early tests In-flight checks of the New Horizons science payload are going well, as six of the seven instruments on board have completed tests proving they survived launch and demonstrated their basic functionality. FULL STORY

Sea levels may be rising faster than expected Ice sheets across both the Arctic and Antarctic could melt more quickly than expected this century, according to two studies that blend computer modeling with paleoclimate records. FULL STORY

New resident crew rockets toward the space station A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome Wednesday and streaked into orbit, carrying a fresh two-man space station crew and a Brazilian test pilot making his nation's first trip off planet. FULL STORY MISSION STATUS CENTER VIDEO: FULL COVERAGE

Additional coverage for subscribers: VIDEO: LAUNCH OF EXPEDITION 13! PLAY VIDEO: FULL ASCENT VIDEO FROM LIFTOFF TO ORBIT PLAY VIDEO: REPLAY FROM LAUNCH CAMERA 1 PLAY VIDEO: REPLAY FROM LAUNCH CAMERA 2 PLAY VIDEO: REPLAY FROM LAUNCH CAMERA 3 PLAY VIDEO: REPLAY FROM LAUNCH CAMERA 4 PLAY VIDEO: POST-LAUNCH INTERVIEW WITH ISS MANAGER PLAY VIDEO: COMMENTS FROM NASA ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR PLAY VIDEO: CREW DEPARTS SUITUP BUILDING FOR LAUNCH PAD PLAY VIDEO: LAUNCH MORNING TRADITIONS AT CREW QUARTERS PLAY VIDEO: THE SOYUZ ROCKET IS ROLLED TO LAUNCH PAD PLAY VIDEO: ROCKET IS ERECTED ON PAD PLAY VIDEO: PRE-FLIGHT MISSION BRIEFING DIAL-UP \| BROADBAND VIDEO: CREW'S PRE-FLIGHT BRIEFING DIAL-UP \| BROADBAND MORE: EXPEDITION 13 VIDEO INDEX SUBSCRIBE NOW
Cassini finds football-field sized moonlets at Saturn New observations of propeller-shaped disturbances in Saturn's A ring indicate the presence of four small, embedded moons -- and most likely millions more. The discovery could lead to a better understanding of the origin and formation of Saturn's rings and the solar system as a whole. FULL STORY

Space shuttle engineers assess new wiring issue Initial wind tunnel tests indicate recent modifications to the foam insulation on the shuttle's external tank may not be as easily analyzed as initially hoped, sources say. While additional testing may resolve the matter, showing the removal of wind deflectors called PAL ramps from the tank will not compromise safety, other ongoing technical issues, including a new concern about possible circuit board wiring problems, threaten the July 1 target date for the next shuttle mission. FULL STORY

Mars meteorite similar to bacteria-etched Earth rocks A new study of a meteorite that originated from Mars has revealed a series of microscopic tunnels that are similar in size, shape and distribution to tracks left on Earth rocks by feeding bacteria. The finding adds intrigue to the search for life beyond Earth. FULL STORY

NASA restarts once-dead Dawn asteroid mission Less than a month after falling victim to budget and technical concerns, the Dawn asteroid explorer was brought back from the grave Monday by a decision to restore funding to the mission and launch the probe by next summer. FULL STORY NASA STATEMENT

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From Europa to lab: New oxygen recipe on icy moons Some may be surprised to learn that bleach-blondes and the enabler of life elsewhere in our solar system have something in common. It is, in fact, hydrogen peroxide. FULL STORY

Cannibal stars like their food hot, XMM-Newton finds The European Space Agency's XMM-Newton observatory has seen vast clouds of superheated gas, whirling around miniature stars and escaping from being devoured by the stars' enormous gravitational fields - giving a new insight into the eating habits of the galaxy's "cannibal" stars. FULL STORY

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter takes test images The first test images of Mars from NASA's newest spacecraft provide a tantalizing preview of what the orbiter will reveal when its main science mission begins next fall. FULL STORY

Fuel leak apparently doomed Falcon 1 rocket Early insights from investigators examining Friday's failed launch of the first SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket suggest a fuel leak triggered a fire that ultimately brought down the booster, the company's founder said Saturday. FULL STORY MISSION STATUS CENTER

First SpaceX rocket launch ends in failure The maiden flight for a new breed of low-cost rockets designed to revolutionize the space launch industry met a disastrous fate Friday, tumbling out of control and slamming into the Pacific Ocean moments after liftoff. FULL STORY

New class of comets may be source of Earth's water Three icy comets orbiting among the rocky asteroids in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter may hold clues to the origin of Earth's oceans. The newly discovered group of comets, dubbed main-belt comets, has asteroid-like orbits and, unlike other comets, appears to have formed in the warm inner solar system inside the orbit of Jupiter rather than in the cold outer solar system beyond Neptune. FULL STORY

Chandra finds evidence for quasar ignition New data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory may provide clues to how quasars "turn on." Since the discovery of quasars over 40 years ago, astronomers have been trying to understand the conditions surrounding the birth of these immensely powerful objects. FULL STORY

Sun's exotic neighbor Astronomers have discovered a unique "brown dwarf" right in our solar neighborhood. If your city were the galaxy, it would be like finding someone you didn't know about living upstairs in your house, one of the discoverers said. FULL STORY

Ideas on gas-giant planet formation take shape Rocky planets such as Earth and Mars are born when small particles smash together to form larger, planet-sized clusters in a planet-forming disk, but researchers are less sure about how gas-giant planets such as Jupiter and Saturn form. FULL STORY

Tiny probes launched to test advanced technologies Three trail-blazing satellites were fired into Earth orbit Wednesday morning to prove if TV-sized probes can serve as formation-flying buoys for monitoring the weather of space and the enormous storms spawned by the sun. FULL STORY MISSION STATUS CENTER

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Great galactic buddies Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have conducted a cosmic safari to seek out a rare galactic species. Their specimens -- clusters of galaxies in the very distant universe -- are few and far between, and have hardly ever been detected beyond a distance of 7 billion light-years from Earth. FULL STORY

Satellites help detect deep-ocean whirlpools Move over, Superman, with your X-ray vision. Marine scientists have figured out a way to see through the ocean's surface and detect what's below, with the help of satellites. FULL STORY

Speeding up interplanetary communications MIT researchers have developed a tiny light detector that may allow for super-fast broadband communications over interplanetary distances. Currently, even still images from other planets are difficult to retrieve. FULL STORY

OTHER HEADLINES Additional stories today

Loral Skynet re-enters North American FSS market -- Loral Skynet announced Monday it has resumed offering fixed satellite services (FSS) to customers in North America. Pursuant to the terms of Loral's agreement to sell certain of its North American assets to Intelsat in March 2004, Skynet was precluded from offering basic FSS capacity leasing services in North America for two years.

Station crew gets away for short trip in Soyuz capsule The International Space Station's two-man crew took a little drive aboard a Soyuz spacecraft Monday, leaving their orbital home for a short time while moving the capsule from one docking port to another in preparation for visitors due next week. FULL STORY

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Spacecraft catches stellar 'corpses' by the tail Tiny stellar 'corpses' have been caught blasting surprisingly powerful X-rays and gamma rays across our galaxy by the European Space Agency's gamma-ray observatory Integral. This discovery links these objects to the most magnetically active bodies in the universe and forces scientists to reconsider just how dead such stellar corpses really are. FULL STORY

Water may not have formed Mars' recent gullies If you're a scientist studying the surface of Mars, few discoveries could be more exciting than seeing recent gullies apparently formed by running water. And that's what scientists believed they saw in Mars Global Surveyor images five years ago. FULL STORY

New manager for Mars rovers in challenging time NASA's long-lived Mars rovers demand lots of care as they age and the Martian winter approaches. That is the job for John Callas, the newly named project manager. One of Spirit's six wheels has stopped working. Dragging that wheel, the solar-powered rover must reach a slope where it can catch enough sunshine to continue operating during the Martian winter. FULL STORY

Satellite reveals universe's first trillionth second Scientists peering back to the oldest light in the universe have new evidence for what happened within its first trillionth of a second, when the universe suddenly grew from submicroscopic to astronomical size in far less than a wink of the eye. FULL STORY

Galaxy on fire! Spitzer reveals stellar smoke Where there's smoke, there's fire -- even in outer space. A new infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows a burning hot galaxy whose fiery stars appear to be blowing out giant billows of smoky dust. The galaxy, called Messier 82, or the "Cigar galaxy," was previously known to host a hotbed of young, massive stars. Spitzer reveals, for the first time, the "smoke" surrounding those stellar fires. FULL STORY

Weird Saturn ring spokes may return in July Unusual spokes up to 6,000 miles long and 1,500 miles in width that appear fleetingly on the rings of Saturn only to disappear for years at a time may become visible again by July, according to a new study spearheaded by the University of Colorado at Boulder. FULL STORY

Astronomers get a chance to size up a brown dwarf Brown dwarfs -- failed stars that fall somewhere between the smallest stars and the largest planets on the spectrum of heavenly objects -- have always been viewed by astronomers as a critical link in the understanding of how both stars and planets form. The trouble with brown dwarfs, however, is that they are hard to find and, so far, they have defied nearly all attempts to accurately assess their size. FULL STORY

Double helix nebula found in center of the Milky Way Astronomers report an unprecedented elongated double helix nebula near the center of our Milky Way galaxy, using observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The part of the nebula the astronomers observed stretches 80 light years in length. FULL STORY

River of stars streams across the northern sky Astronomers have discovered a narrow stream of stars extending at least 45 degrees across the northern sky. The stream is about 76,000 light-years distant from Earth and forms a giant arc over the disk of the Milky Way galaxy. FULL STORY

Shuttle launch delayed to July 1 for tank sensor swap The shuttle Discovery's launch on the second post-Columbia mission has been delayed to at least July 1 because of work to replace suspect engine cutoff sensors in the ship's external tank. Shuttle program manager Wayne Hale made the decision Tuesday, after two days of detailed engineering discussions, even though the issue was not an open-and-shut case and even though the sensor in question may be good enough to fly. "This was not an easy decision," Hale told reporters. FULL STORY NASA STATEMENT STS-121: MISSION COVERAGE

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New planet discovered: An icy super-Earth Astronomers have discovered a "super-Earth" orbiting in the cold outer regions of a distant solar system about 9,000 light-years away. The planet weighs 13 times as much as Earth, and at -330 degrees Fahrenheit, it's one of the coldest planets ever discovered outside our solar system. FULL STORY

Comet from the cold has material from hottest places Scientists analyzing recent samples of comet dust have discovered minerals that formed near the sun or other stars. That means materials from the innermost part of the solar system could have traveled to the outer reaches, where comets formed. FULL STORY

Origin found for odd 'extreme helium stars' An international group of astronomers has used Hubble Space Telescope to determine the origin of a very unusual and rare type of star. The group's studies indicate that the so-called "extreme helium stars" are formed by the merger of two white dwarf stars. FULL STORY

Hubble supports a common birth of Pluto's moons Using new Hubble Space Telescope observations, a research team has found that Pluto's three moons are essentially the same color - boosting the theory that the Pluto system formed in a single, giant collision. FULL STORY

Team trying to regain control of asteroid probe The Hayabusa space probe that last year attempted to capture the first samples of an asteroid has regained stability after a mishap in December left the craft out of control. Japanese officials remain hopeful that the craft can return to Earth in June 2010, with or without the bits of rock coveted by scientists worldwide. FULL STORY

Space shuttle solid rocket motor test-fired NASA's Space Shuttle Program successfully fired a full-scale, full-duration reusable solid rocket technical evaluation motor this week at a Utah test facility. The two-minute static, or stationary, firing of the rocket motor was performed at ATK Thiokol north of Salt Lake City. FULL STORY

Ariane 5 finally soars After four delays, Europe's Ariane 5 rocket blasted the SPAINSAT military communications satellite and the commercial Hot Bird 7A television and radio broadcasting spacecraft into orbit Saturday from French Guiana on the northeast coast of South America. MISSION STATUS CENTER - live updates

Spacecraft safely enters orbit around Mars After a seven-month voyage from Earth, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter successfully fired its main engines for 27 minutes Friday, slowing the craft by some 2,200 mph and putting it into a near-perfect elliptical orbit around the Red Planet. FULL STORY MISSION STATUS CENTER - live updates! PREVIEW STORY TIMELINE: ORBIT INSERTION PLAN ARCHIVE: OUR EARLIER STORIES VIDEO: MRO FULL COVERAGE

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Cassini finds evidence for water on Enceladus Pockets of liquid water may exist near the surface of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus, the apparent source of huge Yellowstone-type geysers seen erupting from the moon's south polar region by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, scientists reported Thursday. If so, Enceladus would join a very short list of bodies in the solar system with environments that could, in theory at least, support life. FULL STORY NASA NEWS RELEASE

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Enceladus the storyteller A masterpiece of deep time and wrenching gravity, the tortured surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus and its fascinating ongoing geologic activity tell the story of the ancient and present struggles of one tiny world. This is a story that is recounted by imaging scientists in a paper published in the journal Science on Friday. FULL STORY

Scientists piece together the most distant explosion It came from the edge of the visible universe, the most distant explosion ever detected. The result of a massive star collapsing into a black hole, the explosion comes from an era soon after stars and galaxies first formed, about 500 million to 1 billion years after the Big Bang. FULL STORY

Ultrasound on Discovery arm; Endeavour tiles hit The shuttle Discovery's robot arm is undergoing ultrasound inspections after a weekend mishap in which a moveable access bucket bumped into the arm during work to clean up broken glass. Two small indentations were found underneath the arm's insulation blankets and NASA wants to make sure the underlying structure wasn't damaged. At the same time, engineers are assessing tile damage to the shuttle Endeavour's body flap caused by equipment that slipped off a tray used by workers inspecting the ship's rudder/speed brake. FULL STORY

NASA assesses unexpected reading from tank sensor Shuttle engineers are studying what, if anything, to do about an unexpected reading from one of four liquid hydrogen main engine cutoff - ECO - sensors in Discovery's external fuel tank, officials said Tuesday. The sensors play a critical role during the climb to space by ensuring a shuttle's main engines shut down normally before draining the ship's external tank. A malfunction could trigger an early engine shutdown or let the powerplants run too long. FULL STORY ENGINE CUT-OFF SENSOR BACKGROUND

Unprecedented forecast for next sunspot cycle The next sunspot cycle will be 30-50 percent stronger than the last one and begin as much as a year late, according to a breakthrough forecast using a computer model of solar dynamics developed by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Predicting the Sun's cycles accurately, years in advance, will help societies plan for active bouts of solar storms, which can slow satellite orbits, disrupt communications, and bring down power systems. FULL STORY

Shuttle Discovery's robotic arm examined after 'bump' Engineers are looking under the insulation on the shuttle Discovery's robot arm to make sure an inadvertent "bump" by a moving servicing bucket didn't cause any damage. FULL STORY

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The air up there at Titan This specially processed composite view from the Cassini spacecraft reveals a tremendous amount of structure in the northern polar atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan. The hazes in Titan's atmosphere are known to extend hundreds of kilometers above the surface. FULL STORY

Titan shines through Titan's smoggy atmosphere glows brilliantly in scattered sunlight, creating a thin, gleaming crescent beyond Saturn's rings. At this slight angle above the ringplane, the thin F ring shines brightly. Light from Titan's eastern and western edges penetrates the Cassini Division, which looks like a thin gap from this angle. FULL STORY

To the relief of Iapetus Sunlight strikes the terminator -- the boundary between day and night -- region on Saturn's moon Iapetus at nearly horizontal angles, making visible the vertical relief of many features in this picture from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. In this image, a large, central-peaked crater is notable at the boundary between the dark material in Cassini Regio and the brighter material on the trailing hemisphere. FULL STORY

Space mission finds significant Antarctic ice loss Scientists were able to conduct the first-ever gravity survey of the entire Antarctic ice sheet using data from the joint NASA/German Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission. This comprehensive study found the ice sheet's mass has decreased significantly from 2002 to 2005. FULL STORY

NEWSWIRE Links to news across the internet

Two-Stage-to-Orbit 'Blackstar' System Shelved at Groom Lake? (AW&ST) -- For 16 years, Aviation Week & Space Technology has investigated myriad sightings of a two-stage-to-orbit system that could place a small military spaceplane in orbit. Considerable evidence supports the existence of such a highly classified system, and top Pentagon officials have hinted that it's "out there," but iron-clad confirmation that meets AW&ST standards has remained elusive. Now facing the possibility that this innovative "Blackstar" system may have been shelved, we elected to share what we've learned about it with our readers, rather than let an intriguing technological breakthrough vanish into "black world" history, known to only a few insiders. SpaceX Building Reusable Crew Capsule (Space News) -- Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is asking NASA to help fund the demonstration of a reusable space capsule the El Segundo, Calif.-based company has been developing in secret with its own funding for the past 18 months.

Andromeda's origin similar to the Milky Way For the last decade, astronomers have thought that the Andromeda galaxy, our nearest galactic neighbor, was rather different from the Milky Way. But a group of researchers have determined that the two galaxies are probably quite similar in the way they evolved, at least over their first several billion years. FULL STORY

Cocoons found around supergiant stars A team of French and North American astronomers has discovered envelopes around three Cepheids, including the Pole star. This is the first time that matter is found surrounding members of this important class of rare and very luminous stars whose luminosity varies in a very regular way. Cepheids play a crucial role in cosmology, being one of the first "steps" on the cosmic distance ladder. FULL STORY

Probe built to visit asteroids killed in budget snarl A robotic mission to study two of the solar system's largest asteroids has been killed by NASA after months of uncertainty while extensive reviews probed the mission's funding and technical credentials. FULL STORY

A shocking surprise in Stephan's Quintet This image of the Stephan's Quintet galaxy cluster clearly shows one of the largest shock waves ever seen (green arc). The wave was produced by one galaxy falling toward another at speeds of more than one million miles per hour. The image is made up of data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and a ground-based telescope in Spain. FULL STORY

NASA, partners unveil new station assembly sequence NASA and its international partners unveiled a new space station assembly sequence Thursday, one that takes into account the looming 2010 end of the shuttle program by deferring science operations in favor of construction flights to ensure completion of the orbital outpost. FULL STORY

Additional coverage for subscribers: VIDEO: ISS SEQUENCE NEWS BRIEFING: DIAL-UP \| BROADBAND SUBSCRIBE NOW
Crews begin assembling next commercial Atlas 5 Another Atlas 5 launch campaign has commenced at Cape Canaveral for a commercial satellite deployment mission slated for blastoff April 20. Assembly of the Lockheed Martin rocket started Wednesday when the 10-story tall bronze first stage was hoisted upright on the mobile launch platform. FULL STORY

Discovery's tank arrives at Kennedy Space Center The external fuel tank for the next space shuttle mission sailed into Kennedy Space Center Wednesday, capping a 900-mile trip inside a covered barge from the New Orleans manufacturing plant to the Florida launch site. FULL STORY

Does Titan's methane originate underground? Data from the European Space Agency's Huygens probe have been used to validate a new model of the evolution of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, showing that its methane supply may be locked away in a kind of methane-rich ice. FULL STORY

Mars missions mapping polar caps, impact craters Two Mars orbiter missions - one from NASA, the other from the European Space Agency - will open new vistas in the exploration of Mars through the use of sophisticated ground-penetrating radars, providing international researchers with the first direct clues about the Red Planet's subsurface structure. FULL STORY

Proton rocket fails in Arab satellite launch A Russian-made rocket booster malfunctioned during launch Tuesday, leaving an Arab telecommunications satellite below its intended Earth orbit and dealing a harsh blow to the commercial space industry. FULL STORY MISSION STATUS CENTER

Shuttle boss 'optimistic' about three flights in '06 If NASA can get the shuttle Discovery off the ground on the second post-Columbia mission this spring or summer, the agency will have a realistic shot at launching three flights this year, program manager Wayne Hale told reporters Tuesday. FULL STORY

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