Sunday: April 28, 2002  0835 GMT
Are black holes not really holes at all?
Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of South Carolina have provided a hypothesis that "black holes" in space are not holes at all, but instead are more akin to bubbles.
   FULL STORY
Art
Energy disappears high in atmosphere, scientists say
When cosmic rays smack into the Earth's atmosphere, part of the energy released seemingly disappears, entering a realm not measurable by current detectors. This energy possibly forms miniature black holes or is transferred to "particles" of gravity, called gravitons, which might leak into other dimensions, according to scientists at NASA and the University of Thessaloniki in Greece.
   FULL STORY
Atmosphere
NASA takes control of new oceanography spacecraft
Jason 1's oceanography mission to monitor global climate interactions between the sea and atmosphere reached another major milestone this past week with the successful handover of day-to-day operations from the French Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
   FULL STORY
Jason 1
Saturday: April 27, 2002  0955 GMT
Soyuz docks to station
The International Space Station and its three-man resident crew received a replacement Soyuz lifeboat and three visitors today, including South African space tourist Mark Shuttleworth.
   FULL STORY
Soyuz
Spaceflight Now Plus
Video coverage for subscribers only:
   VIDEO: SOYUZ CAPSULE DOCKS TO SPACE STATION QT or RV
   VIDEO: VIEW FROM SOYUZ OF APPROACH AND DOCKING QT or RV
   VIDEO: SOYUZ CREW FLOATS INTO STATION QT or RV
   MORE: COMPLETE SFN+ VIDEO INDEX

Disco ball satellite launched by shuttle falls to Earth
A small student-built satellite designed to be tracked by schoolchildren around the globe re-entered Earth's atmosphere Friday morning, ending the mission after just over four months in space. The Starshine 2 satellite was deployed from shuttle Endeavour during its mission to the space station last December.
   FULL STORY
Starshine
Friday: April 26, 2002  0515 GMT
Relive the launch of Hubble
Twelve years ago this week the Hubble Space Telescope was successfully delivered into Earth orbit by space shuttle Discovery. We are marking this anniversary with a three-part, 30-minute package of video clips for our Spaceflight Now Plus service subscribers. Today, in the third installment, we look back to the shuttle's landing.
   COMPLETE VIDEO INDEX
   NOT YET A SUBSCRIBER?
Discovery
Next Titan 4 launch delayed
Launch of the Titan 4 rocket from Cape Canaveral on June 3 has been postponed due to a problem with its secret spy satellite payload, Air Force officials have confirmed.
   FULL STORY
Titan 4
A drama of star formation and evolution
The Chandra image of the Tarantula Nebula gives scientists a close-up view of the drama of star formation and evolution. The Tarantula, also known as 30 Doradus, is in one of the most active star-forming regions in our Local Group of galaxies. Massive stars are producing intense radiation and searing winds of multimillion-degree gas that carve out gigantic super-bubbles in the surrounding gas.
   FULL STORY
Chandra
Comet probe arrives in Florida for July 1 blastoff
The NASA Comet Nucleus Tour spacecraft, or CONTOUR, arrived at the Kennedy Space Center this week to begin final preparations for launch aboard a Boeing Delta 2 rocket on July 1. CONTOUR will provide the first detailed look into the heart of a comet.
   FULL STORY
CONTOUR
Thursday: April 25, 2002  0703 GMT
Tourist launched aboard replacement station lifeboat
A Russian rocket carrying South African space tourist Mark Shuttleworth, Italian astronaut Roberto Vittori and commander Yuri Gidzenko blasted off and streaked into orbit today on a flight to deliver a fresh Soyuz lifeboat to the international space station.
   FULL STORY
Soyuz
Another tourist prepares for launch to space station
South African millionaire Mark Shuttleworth, a self-described "computer geek from Cape Town" and the second man to buy a multi-million-dollar ticket to the international space station, admits he's a bit nervous about blasting off Thursday aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket. "A bit scared," in fact.
   FULL STORY
Shuttleworth
Hubble telescope reads age of the universe
Pushing the limits of its powerful vision, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered the oldest burned-out stars in our Milky Way Galaxy. These extremely old, dim "clockwork stars" provide a completely independent reading on the age of the universe without relying on measurements of the expansion of the universe.
   FULL STORY
M4
Spaceflight Now Plus
Video coverage for subscribers only:
   VIDEO: WATCH TUESDAY'S ENTIRE SCIENCE BRIEFING QT or RV

Relive the launch of Hubble
On April 25, 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was deployed from the payload bay of space shuttle Discovery for its 20-year mission to serve as our window on the universe. We mark this anniversary today with the second of a three-part package of video clips for our Spaceflight Now Plus service subscribers. Over 25 minutes of shuttle mission STS-31 video is now available.
   COMPLETE VIDEO INDEX
   NOT YET A SUBSCRIBER?
Hubble
Wednesday: April 24, 2002  0557 GMT
The launch of Hubble --
12 years later

On April 24, 1990, space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Kennedy Space Center carrying the Hubble Space Telescope. As NASA's first Great Observatory, Hubble was launched to become our window on the Universe. We mark this anniversary today with the first of a three-part package of video clips for our Spaceflight Now Plus service subscribers. Over 19 minutes of pre-flight and launch video is available.
   COMPLETE VIDEO INDEX
   NOT YET A SUBSCRIBER?
Discovery
Hubble news coming today
New findings by Hubble, which NASA says give a verification of the age of the Universe, will be the subject of a science news conference at 1 p.m. EDT today. The briefing will feature a discussion on observations of the faintest and oldest stars called White Dwarfs.
NASA
When worlds collide: Chandra sees titanic merger
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has provided the best X-ray image yet of two Milky Way-like galaxies in the midst of a head-on collision. Since all galaxies - including our own - may have undergone mergers, this provides insight into how the Universe came to look as it does today.
   FULL STORY
Chandra
X-ray flashes linked to gamma-ray bursts
Astronomers announced Tuesday the discovery of what may be the lower-energy "poor relations" of cosmic gamma-ray bursts, the fantastically powerful explosions occurring daily in distant galaxies throughout the universe. If the relationship is confirmed by future observations, this potentially new breed of burst, called an X-ray flash, will provide key information to solve the decades-old puzzle of how these most powerful explosions in the universe are produced.
   FULL STORY
GRB
Soyuz moved to launch pad for Thursday blastoff
The Soyuz rocket that will launch a fresh lifeboat to the International Space Station and tourist Mark Shuttleworth was rolled to the pad Tuesday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Liftoff remains scheduled for 0626 GMT (2:26 a.m. EDT) on Thursday.
Soyuz
Tuesday: April 23, 2002  0251 GMT
Scientists find black hole pumps energy as it spins
MIT scientists have more evidence that black holes can spin, creating a whirlpool in the fabric of space that pumps energy out of the black hole and into the region.
   FULL STORY
Black hole
Retired quasars generate most energetic cosmic rays
They are old but not forgotten. Nearby "retired" quasar galaxies, billions of years past their glory days as the brightest beacons in the Universe, may be the current source of rare, high-energy cosmic rays, the fastest-moving bits of matter known and whose origin has been a long-standing mystery, according to scientists at NASA and Princeton University.
   FULL STORY
Galaxy
Speeding neutron star caught with 'radar gun'
NASA scientists have observed a rare thermonuclear explosion on a neutron star that brightened it for so long that they could detect its motion as it moved towards and away from us on its orbit around a companion star. This enabled them to measure the star's orbital velocity using the Doppler effect in the same way a state trooper nabs speeding motorists.
   FULL STORY
Neutron star
Monday: April 22, 2002  0407 GMT
Comprehensive video coverage of Atlantis mission
You can relive the flight of space shuttle Atlantis from pre-launch activities to landing with our Spaceflight Now Plus video subscription service. We have over 11 hours of video that captures Atlantis' highly successful space station assembly mission and four spacewalk. All of the movies are available in QuickTime and RealVideo formats for subscribers.
   COMPLETE VIDEO INDEX
   NOT YET A SUBSCRIBER?
Atlantis
Evidence for young planets found in dusty orbits
Two independent teams of astronomers have presented the discovery of new features in an edge-on disk around the nearby star Beta Pictoris.
   FULL STORY
Dust

News Archive
April 15-21: Completion of Atlantis' mission; Hubble hunts down objects at fringe of solar system; Ariane rocket launches on its 150th flight; GPS launch delayed.

April 8-14: Atlantis launches to space station and installs new truss; NASA relaunches teacher-in-space program; Evidence suggests a new form of matter; Astronomers detect stellar ashes at the dawn of time.

April 1-7: Hydrogen leak scrubs launch of shuttle Atlantis; Deep Space 1 finds Comet Borrelly has hot, dry surface; Hubble resumes scientific work after servicing; Chinese unmanned space capsule returns to Earth.

More news  See our weekly archive of space news.





Contact us
If you have a comment or question for Spaceflight Now, just send us an e-mail.