Sunday: August 11, 2002   0020 GMT 25th anniversary of first space shuttle landing test Before the space shuttle could orbit in space, it had to prove that it could land on Earth. Twenty-five years ago, on August 12, 1977, the first free flight by the prototype space shuttle orbiter Enterprise was successfully flown at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California's high desert.    FULL STORY Balloon seeks antimatter, other cosmic particles High above the Canadian plains, Japanese and U.S. scientists have harvested another crop of antimatter particles, in the latest flight of a balloon-borne experiment named BESS which has flown nearly every summer since 1993 searching for evidence of an antimatter domain within our Universe.    FULL STORY Saturday: August 10, 2002   0201 GMT Satellite cargo and Atlas 5 rocket joined together The European Hot Bird 6 TV broadcasting satellite was hauled from a processing facility to Lockheed Martin's Atlas 5 vehicle assembly building early Friday. Already enclosed within the rocket's nose cone, the spacecraft was then hoisted atop the Atlas 5 and attached to the Centaur upper stage. Launch remains set for August 21.    FULL STORY - updated    ARCHIVED ATLAS 5 COVERAGE Shuttle Atlantis crack welding begins Welding was underway Friday to repair the flow liner cracks found inside space shuttle Atlantis. A technique called Gas Tungsten Arc Welding is being used for the repairs because it results in a very pure weld with minimal impurities.    FULL STORY One small step Around the world, there is renewed interest in sending a manned mission to other planets in our Solar System. What conditions await future astronauts? Space science provides many clues. Before leaving Earth, scientists want to use robotic spacecraft to find out more about the conditions that human travellers will face once they reach some far-off destination. A flotilla of planetary exploration missions is already providing us with invaluable scientific data about other worlds.    FULL STORY Friday: August 9, 2002   0311 GMT Satellite cargo and Atlas 5 rocket to be joined Friday The European Hot Bird 6 TV broadcasting satellite is slated to be hauled from a processing facility to Lockheed Martin's Atlas 5 vehicle assembly building early Friday. Already enclosed within the rocket's nose cone, the spacecraft will be hoisted atop the Atlas 5 and attached to the Centaur upper stage. Launch remains set for August 21.    FULL STORY    ARCHIVED ATLAS 5 COVERAGE Russian launches to station delayed; shuttle affected Launch of a new Russian Soyuz lifeboat to the international space station has been delayed a week, from Oct. 22 to Oct. 28, triggering a similar slip for a space shuttle flight currently targeted for launch Nov. 2. Endeavour's flight likely will slip to some point after the Soyuz undocks Nov. 7. However, a new target date has not been identified.    FULL STORY Orbital plane to launch Japanese supersonic testing Orbital Sciences announced Thursday that it has been awarded a contract by Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. of Japan to provide launch support services for an experimental supersonic flight test program. Orbital will use its "Stargazer" L-1011 to carry a small-scale, unmanned supersonic airplane to a preplanned altitude and location, where it will be released.    FULL STORY Thursday: August 8, 2002   0400 GMT A portrait of one hundred thousand and one galaxies A series of wide-field images centered on the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 300 have been combined into a magnificent color photo. These images have been used by different groups of astronomers for various kinds of scientific investigations, ranging from individual stars and nebulae in NGC 300, to distant galaxies and other objects in the background.    FULL STORY X-ray arcs tell the tale of giant eruption Long ago, a giant eruption occurred in a nearby galaxy and plunged it into turmoil. Now NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has revealed the remains of that explosion in the form of two enormous arcs of hot gas. This discovery can help astronomers better understand the cause and effect of violent outbursts from the vicinity of supermassive black holes in the centers of many so-called "active" galaxies.    FULL STORY Wednesday: August 7, 2002   0210 GMT Stardust spacecraft reaches for cosmic dust NASA's Stardust spacecraft, on a mission to collect and return the first samples from a comet, began Monday to collect tiny specks of solid matter, called interstellar dust grains, that permeate the galaxy.    FULL STORY Next reusable launch vehicle may fly on kerosene The kerosene that lights your heater or stove might be the same type of fuel powering the nation's next space vehicle. Kerosene - almost as common to American life as gasoline - is being considered as a fuel for two main engine candidates for a second generation reusable launch vehicle, now in development by the Space Launch Initiative.    FULL STORY New space flight associate administrator tapped NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe has selected William F. Readdy as the agency's next Associate Administrator for Space Flight at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Readdy, a veteran Space Shuttle commander and Navy test pilot, replaces Frederick D. Gregory, who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as NASA's Deputy Administrator.    FULL STORY Tuesday: August 6, 2002   0350 GMT Shuttle motor tested A scaled-down version of the space shuttle's Reusable Solid Rocket Motor was successfully fired for 21 seconds last week. More than 100 spectators, including crew members of the shuttle Endeavour STS-111 mission, which flew in June, watched as Marshall Center's Space Transportation Directorate tested a new material that may be used on the Solid Rocket Motor's nozzle.    FULL STORY Flyback rocket boosters studied for next generation The Space Launch Initiative's Propulsion Office recently began a study to determine jet engine requirements for a flyback booster to help launch a second generation reusable launch vehicle.    FULL STORY Monday: August 5, 2002   0402 GMT Disks around failed stars: A question of age A team of European astronomers have observed eight brown dwarfs -- small and faint objects also known as "failed stars". From two of these, mid-infrared radiation is detected for the first time ever from such objects with a ground-based telescope. While the younger brown dwarf, aged a few million years, is found to be surrounded by a dusty disk, no warm dust is present around the older ones.    FULL STORY Satellites show bulge in Earth's gravity field growing Satellite data since 1998 indicates the bulge in the Earth's gravity field at the equator is growing, and scientists think that the ocean may hold the answer to the mystery of how the changes in the trend of Earth's gravity are occurring.    FULL STORY NASA extends USA contract NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, has exercised an existing option under the Space Flight Operations Contract in support of the space shuttle program with United Space Alliance. The effort is awarded at an estimated total cost and fee of $2.844 billion.    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 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. Includes DVD!  U.S. STORE  WORLDWIDE STORE Contact us If you have a comment or question for Spaceflight Now, just send us an e-mail.