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Sunday:
January 23, 2000 | |
0410 GMT |
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Obsolete launch tower demolished at Vandenberg
With a loud pop and puff of black smoke, a 35-year old launch tower came crashing down Saturday at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
FULL STORY
DEMOLITION PHOTO GALLERY
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Aircraft tries to collect meteor data over Canada
A NASA ER-2 plane flew to the Yukon Territory
of northwestern Canada on Friday in an effort to collect atmospheric samples of a very large meteor that exploded at an altitude of 15.6 miles on Tuesday.
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DAILY BRIEFING Other stories making news today
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XMM observed from Earth -- Following a suggestion from members of the Flight Dynamics department at the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, an amateur astronomer in Australia has managed to take a picture of XMM in orbit.
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NEWSWIRE Links to news across the internet
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Russians, NASA meet secretly to plan manned Mars missions -- (UPI) The National Aeronautics and Space Administration quietly concluded a three-day seminar with Russian space experts Friday, to discuss better ways to send humans to Mars.
Space tracking pioneer dies -- (BBC) Geoff Perry MBE, founder of the influential Kettering satellite tracking group, and co-discoverer of the top secret Soviet Plesetsk launch site in 1966 has died of a heart attack. He was 72.
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Saturday:
January 22, 2000 | |
0315 GMT |
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Launch tower to tumble today at Vandenberg
There will be a rumble at Vandenberg Air Force Base's Space Launch Complex-3 West today, but it won't be from a rocket. Demolition crews will use 20 pounds of explosives to topple the pad's mobile service tower at 2300 GMT (6 p.m. EST). Bad weather moved the event up one day.
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COMPLEX 41 COVERAGE
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Mars review team visits Lockheed Martin
The Mars Program Independent Assessment Team went to Lockheed Martin Astronautics facilities in Denver this week. That site built and controlled the failed Mars Climate Orbiter and Polar Lander craft.
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Engine firing aborted by NASA's Terra spacecraft
NASA's Terra spacecraft aborted an orbit raising maneuver on January 11 due to an unplanned rolling motion of the satellite, the space agency disclosed this week. Officials are developing a new plan to get Terra into its final orbit.
FULL STORY
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Arianespace readies for first launch of 2000
Arianespace officials completed their Launch Readiness Review on Friday and cleared an Ariane 4 rocket to boost the Galaxy 10R communications satellite into Earth orbit on Monday night. Follow the countdown and launch with our Mission Status Center.
MISSION STATUS CENTER
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DAILY BRIEFING Other stories making news today
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'Minor' problem seen in test of power unit aboard ISS -- A glitch occurred recently during a self-test of one of two active Remote Power Controller Module (RPCM) units in the Unity docking port of the International Space Station.
Stardust comet probe completes two maneuvers -- NASA's Stardust probe should complete the third and final part of its first Deep Space Maneuver-1 this weekend.
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NEWSWIRE Links to news across the internet
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Boeing considering space-sector acquisitions -- (Seattle Times) Boeing may acquire two more space-sector companies, but dump one existing unit as it moves to capture half of the launch-services market in the next few years, according to the company's top space executive.
NASA scales back shuttle mapping mission -- (Reuters/Yahoo!) Just 10 days before the space shuttle Endeavour was scheduled to launch, NASA said on Friday its mission to map the Earth between the polar circles was too ambitious and scaled back the goals.
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Friday:
January 21, 2000 | |
0417 GMT |
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Atlas soars into 2000
A Lockheed Martin Atlas 2A rocket streaked into the Florida night sky Thursday, hurling a U.S. Air Force satellite into orbit to relay communications between military commanders and troops around the globe.
FULL STORY
MISSION STATUS CENTER
ATLAS INDEX
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Vandenberg pad demolition moved to Saturday
The threat of bad weather may move up the planned toppling of the Space Launch Complex-3 West tower at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The explosive event was planned for Sunday, but Lockheed Martin will likely reschedule for Saturday.
EARLIER STORY
COMPLEX 41 COVERAGE
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NEWSWIRE Links to news across the internet
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Moon moves toward total eclipse -- (AP/Yahoo!)
Across the Western Hemisphere wherever there wasn't a curtain of clouds, one of the greatest shows on Earth played overhead Thursday night: a total eclipse of the moon.
Radar mast to be retracted early on next shuttle mission -- (CBS News) NASA managers have decided to have the shuttle Endeavour's crew retract a large radar antenna one day early - reducing the amount of data that will be collected about Earth's topography - because of concern about the potential impact of an antenna jam the day before entry.
Earth may have wobbled long ago -- (AP/Yahoo!) Suddenly, long ago, something changed the Earth's weight distribution, causing the planet to roll slightly before slowly returning to normal, say a pair of scientists studying underwater volcanoes.
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Thursday:
January 20, 2000 | |
1937 GMT |
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NASA grounds HETE 2 satellite for more testing
Risk. NASA says there is too much risk with one of its scientific research satellites and officials have halted the mission's launch to conduct more thorough testing.
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Vandenberg launch pad demolition set for Sunday
Three months ago it was the historic Titan launch pad at Cape Canaveral. Now a California tower that aided rocket testing in the golden days of the space program will be demolished in the name of safety.
FULL STORY
COMPLEX 41 COVERAGE
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Weather iffy for Atlas
Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Air Force are preparing for today's launch of an Atlas 2A rocket and military communications satellite, but bad weather threatens the 7:15 p.m. EST (0015 GMT Friday) liftoff. Follow the countdown and launch with our Mission Status Center.
MISSION STATUS CENTER
ATLAS INDEX
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Lockheed Martin receives more RD-180 engines
Three more Russian-built RD-180 engines have been delivered to Lockheed Martin for use on future Atlas 3 rockets. The engines were built at NPO Energomash facilities in Khimky, Russia.
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DAILY BRIEFING Other stories making news today
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La Nina's persistence may be part of larger climate pattern -- Data from the U.S.-French TOPEX/Poseidon satellite shows higher than normal sea-surface heights developing over the last year is beginning to dominate the entire western Pacific and Asiatic oceans.
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NEWSWIRE Links to news across the internet
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Russia to go on with Mir, launch ISS module -- (Reuters/Yahoo!) Russia pledged Thursday to proceed with two major space programs, its own Mir station and a service module for the International Space Station, but said more funds were needed to get on with the jobs.
Skywatchers await lunar eclipse -- (AP/Yahoo!) Astronomers and amateur skywatchers in North and South America awaited a full lunar eclipse tonight that was expected to turn the moon red or other strange hues, or blot it out entirely. But bad weather threatened to spoil the show in some regions.
Sensor problem apparently caused U.S. missile test failure -- (Reuters/Yahoo!) Problems with two heat-seeking guides on a U.S. anti-missile weapon six seconds from its target apparently caused Tuesday night's failure of a major missile defense test, a defense official said on Wednesday.
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Wednesday:
January 19, 2000 | |
0600 GMT |
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Tile problem could delay shuttle Endeavour launch
The first shuttle flight of 2000 might be delayed after new concerns were raised Tuesday with the workmanship on NASA's $2 billion spaceplanes. The space agency must check paperwork to ensure some tiles were properly installed on Endeavour before it can launch.
FULL STORY
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Minotaur rocket still awaiting new batteries
The U.S. Air Force has yet to reschedule the launch of the first OSP Minotaur rocket carrying the JAWSAT satellite platform. Efforts continue to find replacement batteries to install into the rocket's Range Safety system, and another launch try might not come until next week. Follow the countdown with our Mission Status Center.
MISSION STATUS CENTER
MISSION PREVIEW
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NEAR snaps view of Eros
NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous satellite has taken the first image during approach to the asteroid Eros. The craft will beginning orbiting Eros on February 14 to study its origin and composition.
FULL STORY
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Atlas rocket to fly Thursday
The stage is set this week for Lockheed Martin's first Atlas rocket launch of 2000. The Atlas 2A rocket will carry the U.S. Air Force Defense Satellite Communications System (DSCS-B8) spacecraft into orbit. Follow the countdown and launch with our Mission Status Center.
MISSION STATUS CENTER
ATLAS INDEX
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DAILY BRIEFING Other stories making news today
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Get ready for a blood-red lunar eclipse this week -- On the night of January 20-21, a total lunar eclipse will occur. Depending on weather conditions, the phase of totality should be visible from Western Europe to the western United States.
TRW selected for NASA Rapid 2 contract -- NASA has picked TRW for a program to streamline the acquisition of small- and medium-class satellites for space science, Earth science and advanced technology missions.
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NEWSWIRE Links to news across the internet
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U.S. fails to hit missile warhead in launch test
-- (Reuters/Yahoo!) The U.S. military on Tuesday failed to hit a speeding missile warhead high over the Pacific Ocean in a key test of a planned national missile defense system, the Defense Department said. "An intercept was not achieved."
Meteor explodes near Alaska, Yukon border
-- (Reuters/Yahoo!) A meteor exploded over the mountains of southern Yukon on Tuesday, shaking houses and providing residents of the remote region with a dramatic light show.
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Tuesday:
January 18, 2000 | |
0017 GMT |
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NASA concludes attempts to contact Mars lander
Mars Polar Lander controllers on Monday ended all attempts to regain communications with the spacecraft. The lander was never heard from after its planned descent and touchdown near the Martian south pole on December 3.
FULL STORY
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Space mission yields most detailed views of quasars
Astronomers from around the world will gather in Japan later this week to present the most detailed images of quasars ever seen, produced with data from the Very Long Base Interferometry Space Observatory Program.
FULL STORY
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DAILY BRIEFING Other stories making news today
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Chandra resolves X-ray glow into millions of objects -- Chandra has resolved most of the X-ray background, a pervasive glow of X-rays throughout the Universe, which was first discovered in the early days of space exploration.
This week on Galileo -- Galileo's primary activity this week is the return of data from its January 3 flyby of Jupiter's icy moon Europa. Early in the week, Galileo completes it initial pass through data captured during its November passage through the Io torus.
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Monday:
January 17, 2000 | |
0257 GMT |
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Attempts to recover Mars Polar Lander end today
The Mars Polar Lander flight team expect to end attempts to recover the spacecraft today. The team has continued efforts to regain communications with the spacecraft since the planned landing on December 3.
FULL STORY
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ESA's Planck shapes up
Planck, ESA's satellite to study the Universe as it was shortly after the Big Bang, is quickly taking shape. Its conceptual design has been settled and a full size wooden mock-up of the satellite has been delivered to ESA.
FULL STORY
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NASA's Stardust to make space maneuver Tuesday
The Stardust comet chaser is slated to complete part one of its first Deep Space Maneuver on Tuesday. The other two parts will be performed later this week.
FULL STORY
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INTELSAT buys 3 new sats
In light of the increasing demand for satellite capacity in virtually all regions it serves, INTELSAT announced last week that it is buying three new spacecraft: INTELSAT 906, 907 and NI-Alpha.
FULL STORY
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DAILY BRIEFING Other stories making news today
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Chandra images starburst galaxy -- NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has imaged the core of the nearest starburst galaxy, a cauldron of exploding stars, neutron stars, black holes, 100 million-degree gas, and a powerful galactic wind.
SPACEHAB venture unites biotech partners -- U.S. and Singapore partners will develop a protein crystal growth experiment to fly aboard a SPACEHAB module during space shuttle mission STS-107, set for launch in January 2001.
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