Sunday: June 23, 2002   0302 GMT Evidence found of lake, catastrophic flood on Mars Geologists at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum have discovered a large former lake in the highlands of Mars that would cover an area the size of Texas and New Mexico combined, and which overflowed to carve one of that planet's largest valleys.    FULL STORY Titan 2 booster to launch U.S. weather satellite A polar orbiting weather satellite that will be used in global forecasting and environmental research is slated for blastoff Monday atop a refurbished Air Force Titan 2 missile.    MISSION STATUS CENTER - updates!    LAUNCH EVENTS TIMELINE    NOAA-M SATELLITE FACT SHEET    OVERVIEW OF TITAN 2 ROCKET New science experiments installed in station lab The new Expedition 5 crew's main science activity this past week involved activation and maintenance of the new Stelsys liver cell experiment ferried to the International Space Station by space shuttle Endeavour recently.    FULL STORY Saturday: June 22, 2002   0600 GMT Proton launch scrubbed Today's launch of the Proton rocket was postponed due to a problem with the EchoStar 8 direct-to-home TV broadcasting satellite cargo. Liftoff had been scheduled for 0515 GMT (1:15 a.m. EDT).    MISSION STATUS CENTER - updates!    LAUNCH EVENTS TIMELINE    ORBIT INSERTION GRAPHIC    GROUND TRACK MAP Life after retirement for Hubble hardware Two pieces of 'retired' hardware retrieved from the Hubble Space Telescope provide scientists and engineers with unique knowledge of how long-term exposure to the harsh space environment affects hardware.    FULL STORY NASA's ICESat to be fitted with laser for launch The Geoscience Laser Altimeter System instrument for NASA's Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat), has arrived at Ball Aerospace for integration with the spacecraft. The mission will measuring ice sheet mass balance, cloud and aerosol heights, vegetation structure and land topography.    FULL STORY Friday: June 21, 2002   0220 GMT Proton rocket to launch U.S. TV satellite Saturday The EchoStar 8 satellite, built to beam television programming to millions of homes across the U.S., will ride a Russian Proton rocket into Earth orbit on Saturday.    MISSION STATUS CENTER - updates!    LAUNCH EVENTS TIMELINE    ORBIT INSERTION GRAPHIC    GROUND TRACK MAP Student prompting closer look at stellar birthplace What began as an essay contest in British Columbia, Canada to encourage an interest in astronomy for elementary school students has resulted in spectacular images and scientific data that may warrant possible follow-up observations.    FULL STORY Where have all the comets gone? Most comets disintegrate after their first few passages through the inner solar system, say scientists at Southwest Research Institute. A new study has revealed that 99 percent of the objects from the cloud of comets at the edge of the solar system, known as the Oort cloud, break apart sometime after they enter the inner solar system.    FULL STORY Eurockot successfully launches Iridium satellites A pair of spare satellites for the Iridium mobile communications network were successfully launched into space Thursday by a Rockot vehicle from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northern Russia. The spacecraft are part of a plan designed to ensure Iridium's constellation operates through 2010.    FULL STORY Thursday: June 20, 2002   0508 GMT Shuttle Endeavour returns station crew to Earth Diverted to California after back-to-back landing delays Monday and Tuesday, the shuttle Endeavour's crew glided to a picture-perfect Mojave Desert touchdown Wednesday, bringing a trio of weary space station fliers home after a U.S. record 196 days in space.    FULL STORY    MISSION STATUS CENTER    ENTRY AND LANDING TIMELINE More mission coverage here:       Video coverage for subscribers only:    VIDEO: ENDEAVOUR'S LANDING AS SEEN ON NASA TV QT    VIDEO: POWERFUL TRACKING CAMERA VIEW OF LANDING QT or RV    VIDEO: PRIMARY RUNWAY CAMERA ANGLE QT or RV    VIDEO: VIEW FROM OTHER SIDE OF THE RUNWAY QT or RV    VIDEO: POST-LANDING COMMENTS FROM COCKRELL QT or RV    SUBSCRIBE NOW Water fountains in the sky Astronomers have found that an aging star is spewing narrow, rotating streams of water molecules into space, like a jerking garden hose that has escaped its owner's grasp. The discovery may help resolve a longstanding mystery about how the stunningly beautiful objects called planetary nebulae are formed.    FULL STORY 'Winking' star may be home to new solar system A distant star with an unusual cycle of brightening and dimming may have one or more planets forming around it, astronomers announced Wednesday. Detailed observations of the star KH 15D revealed a pattern of brightness changes that astronomers have interpreted to be created by one or more objects churning up material in a protoplanetary disk around the star.    FULL STORY    WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY RELEASE Wednesday: June 19, 2002   0312 GMT Shuttle Endeavour to stay in space until Wednesday For the second straight day, bad weather in Florida prevented space shuttle Endeavour from returning to Earth on Tuesday. So the astronauts got another bonus day aloft, extending the Endeavour's mission to 14 days in duration and the Expedition 4 station crew's U.S. endurance record to 196 days. NASA will try again Wednesday.    FULL STORY    MISSION STATUS CENTER - updates    ENTRY AND LANDING TIMELINE    UPDATED MASTER FLIGHT PLAN More mission coverage here:       Astronomers discover another extrasolar Jupiter For the second time in less than a week astronomers have announced the discovery of a planet around another star that closely resembles the planet Jupiter in our own solar system.    FULL STORY Atlas 2AS and Ariane 5 win new launch contracts Four satellite launch contracts were announced Tuesday by operator SES AMERICOM, with two going to Lockheed Martin's Atlas 2AS rocket and Arianespace's Ariane 5 receiving the other pair.    FULL STORY Controllers believe Galileo tape recorder fixed The Galileo spacecraft has now rounded the corner in its longest looping orbit around Jupiter and is again heading back in towards the giant planet and a close flyby of the tiny moon Amalthea in November. This past week brought good news about the on-board tape recorder, which got stuck in April.    FULL STORY Tuesday: June 18, 2002   0335 GMT NASA hopes to bring Endeavour home Tuesday Clouds, rain, gusty winds and the threat of hail all conspired to keep shuttle Endeavour from landing at Kennedy Space Center Monday. NASA rescheduled the homecoming for 11:55 a.m. EDT (1555 GMT) Tuesday, but the weather forecast is not much better. The bonus day in space extends the returning Expedition 4 station crew's U.S. endurance record to at least 195 days.    MISSION STATUS CENTER - live updates    LANDING PREVIEW STORY    ENTRY AND LANDING TIMELINE    UPDATED MASTER FLIGHT PLAN    NASA TV SCHEDULE More mission coverage here:       Developing a smarter way to travel through space As scientists demand more from space missions travelling to other worlds and beyond, traditional rocket technologies are beginning to show shortcomings. In response, ESA are helping to develop a new type of rocket engine, known as solar-electric propulsion, or more commonly, an ion engine, that can mark a whole new era of space exploration.    FULL STORY Thuraya to launch another satellite, build a third Thuraya Satellite Telecommunications Co., based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, has authorized Boeing to launch the Thuraya 2 GEO-Mobile communications satellite in January 2003 and has contracted with Boeing to build Thuraya 3. Sea Launch will loft Thuraya 2.    FULL STORY Monday: June 17, 2002   0326 GMT Weather could delay today's shuttle landing Forecasters are predicting rain and possible thunderstorms for Endeavour's Florida landing opportunities today. NASA managers want to get the shuttle back on the ground in Florida if at all possible to have any chance at all of holding an October launch date for Endeavour's next space station assembly mission.    FULL STORY    MISSION STATUS CENTER    ENTRY AND LANDING TIMELINE    UPDATED MASTER FLIGHT PLAN    NASA TV SCHEDULE More mission coverage here:       Video coverage for subscribers only:    VIDEO: SUNDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING QT or RV Stormy solar weather plays the Sun like a guitar Huge loops of very hot, electrified gas rising above the Sun's surface vibrate with enormous energy at times of solar storms, like the strings of an immense guitar. The vibrating loops are a new piece in the complex puzzle of solar storms, revealing intense, local, and short-lived activity of a kind that had escaped the scientists' notice.    FULL STORY Shuttle external tank deal extended with Lockheed NASA has extended to September 2008 its six-year, $1.15 billion contract with Lockheed Martin Space Systems, New Orleans, to provide 35 Super Lightweight External Tanks for the Space Shuttle Program.    FULL STORY				Contact us If you have a comment or question for Spaceflight Now, just send us an e-mail.