Sunday: July 14, 2002   0200 GMT Studying the mystery of nanodiamond stardust An astrophysicist from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics has found that some nanodiamonds, the most famous and exotic form of stardust, may instead have formed within the inner solar system.    FULL STORY Lockheed Martin to support NASA astrobiology research NASA's Ames Research Center has awarded a contract valued at more than $300 million to Lockheed Martin Space Operations of Houston to provide supplies and services for Ames' Astrobiology and Space Research Directorate.    FULL STORY Saturday: July 13, 2002   0201 GMT Space shuttle flights off until at least September NASA's shuttle fleet will remain "grounded" until at least mid September and possibly longer because of small but potentially dangerous cracks in hydrogen feed lines in all four of the agency's orbiters. But shuttle program manager Ronald Dittemore says he is optimistic that in the next few weeks engineers will either clear the shuttle fleet to resume flying as is or develop relatively straight forward repairs that will minimize the down time.    FULL STORY Panel: NEO search efforts need more support Congress should provide more funding to efforts to search for near-Earth objects (NEOs) as well as studies of the best techniques to deflect any potentially hazardous NEOs, a panel of experts said this week.    FULL STORY Friday: July 12, 2002   0312 GMT Sharp maps released from space shuttle mission People around the world will soon get to see their home planet in an entirely new way, as NASA extends the release of detailed topographical maps collected during the 2000 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission beyond U.S. borders to the rest of the globe.    FULL STORY Going farther and faster out of this world A giant leap toward enabling high power electric propulsion was recently demonstrated. With power levels up to 72 kW and nearly 3 Newtons of thrust, NASA's Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, has designed, built and successfully tested a 50 kW-class Hall thruster.    FULL STORY Aging UFO satellite helps U.S. military in Afghanistan A Boeing-built U.S. Navy communications satellite, launched nine years ago and formerly used as an in-orbit spare, has a new mission providing critical military communications capacity for U.S. forces in Operation Enduring Freedom.    FULL STORY Thursday: July 11, 2002   0501 GMT Planetary Society hopes to launch solar sail this year Although launch is still months away, plans to fly the world's first solar sail are progressing closer to liftoff as the Planetary Society-led Cosmos 1 team conduct a flurry of tests to ensure a successful flight.    FULL STORY Two new Small Explorer missions selected by NASA Spacecraft that will observe the Earth's highest clouds and detect hidden matter in the Universe have been chosen as the next two missions in NASA's Small Explorer (SMEX) program.    FULL STORY Pathfinder missions to enhance Earth research As part of the Earth System Science Pathfinder small-satellite program, NASA has selected two new space mission proposals that will yield fresh insight into our home planet's carbon cycle and how oceans affect and respond to climate change -- knowledge that will help better life here on Earth.    FULL STORY Wednesday: July 10, 2002   0136 GMT Hunt for cracks moves to shuttle Endeavour NASA managers and contractors are continuing to work through an exhaustive series of inspections and tests to determine what caused small but potentially dangerous cracks in shuttle fuel line baffles that have now been found in three of the agency's four orbiters. The main propulsion system in the fourth shuttle - Endeavour - is being inspected this week.    FULL STORY Is the Universe older than expected? An analysis of 13.5 thousand million-year-old X-rays, captured by ESA's XMM-Newton satellite, has shown that either the Universe may be older than astronomers had thought or that mysterious, undiscovered 'iron factories' litter the early Universe.    FULL STORY New Spanish dish to aid interplanetary chatter They are building a big antenna for the Deep Space Network, which provides radio communications for spacecraft exploring the solar system. The network operates clusters of skyward-facing dish antennas at sites in California, Spain and Australia. The antennas catch radioed information from spacecraft as near as Earth orbit and as far as more than twice the distance to Pluto.    FULL STORY Tuesday: July 9, 2002   0357 GMT Boeing pushes back target date for first Delta 4 launch The inaugural flight of Boeing's Delta 4 has been postponed from the end of August to around October 9 because testing of the brand-new rocket is running behind schedule at Cape Canaveral's newly rebuilt launch pad 37B.    FULL STORY 'Quiet' star wasn't quiet after all, say scientists For more than two years the star was "quiet." Or so scientists thought. But the X-ray pulsar EXO 2030+375 was abuzz with activity. Scientists simply lacked the ability to "hear" it over the hum of a nearby black hole.    FULL STORY Secret Russian military satellites launched Russia launched a pair of classified military satellites into Earth orbit Monday aboard a Kosmos-3M rocket. But experts aren't exactly sure what the satellites will be used for since their orbit is different than past military spacecraft launched by Kosmos-3M rockets.    FULL STORY Monday: July 8, 2002   0001 GMT Formal launch date booked for first Atlas 5 rocket The debut launch of Lockheed Martin's next-generation Atlas 5 rocket has been officially rescheduled for August 12 following the successful completion of some additional umbilical retraction tests.    FULL STORY Solar satellite sees molten curl spewing from Sun A beautiful loop of magnetic energy large enough to encompass 40 Earth's, was spotted by NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) last week. Blasting off the Sun, the loop traps hot gas and typically reaches 107,000 degrees F.    FULL STORY				The ultimate Apollo 11 DVD This exceptional chronicle of the historic Apollo 11 lunar landing mission features new digital transfers of film and television coverage unmatched by any other.  U.S. STORE  U.K. WORLDWIDE STORE STS-111 T-shirt Our special edition T-shirt features the space shuttle mission STS-111 emblem.  U.S. STORE  U.K. & WORLDWIDE STORE ADVERTISEMENT FREE Rocket Design Software How to design your own rockets -- FREE software available. Imagine launching your own rockets, and fully testing them prior to liftoff. See how high and fast they'll fly! Great educational resource for teachers, and simulation tool for engineers. Limited-time offer.  LEARN MORE NEW! Mission Report Apollo 11 - The NASA Mission Reports Vol. 3 is the first comprehensive study of man's first mission to another world is revealed in all of its startling complexity. 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