Sunday: August 18, 2002   0001 GMT Launch weather forecast In his forecast issued Saturday, Launch Weather Officer Jim Sardonia is calling for generally favorable conditions for Thursday's liftoff of Lockheed Martin's inaugural Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral.    FULL STORY Exploding galaxy found at edge of the Universe A collaboration led by astronomers from Tohoku University in Japan has discovered a galaxy rapidly forming stars when the Universe was less than a billion years old. Images and spectra from telescopes reveal that the galaxy has a high-speed outflow of hydrogen gas believed to be caused by a massive burst of star formation.    FULL STORY Starquakes reveal stellar secrets Looking into the interior of the Earth or the Sun is a bit similar to examining a baby in its mother's womb using an ultrasound scan. Light cannot penetrate the area, so we make pictures in these cases using sound waves, which human ears cannot hear. With SOHO, ESA has probed deeply into the Sun using the sound-waves principle, and with great success. The future missions, Solar Orbiter and Eddington, will look inside our Sun and other stars, respectively, in a similar way.    FULL STORY Saturday: August 17, 2002   0607 GMT CONTOUR comet probe may have broken up in flight A telescope operated by the Spacewatch asteroid detection program has photographed two objects beyond the orbit of the moon that may be the remains of NASA's CONTOUR comet probe.    FULL STORY    CONTOUR MISSION PREVIEW STORY Hot Bird 6 to join Eutelsat's entertainment fleet The first Atlas 5 rocket will launch the Hot Bird 6 satellite into space for Paris-based Eutelsat. The craft is designed to relay digital TV and radio programming to homes across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Read Eutelsat's fact sheet on Hot Bird 6:    FULL STORY    MISSION STATUS CENTER Friday: August 16, 2002   1500 GMT Spacewalkers add shielding to the space station Expedition 5 commander Valery Korzun and NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson made the first spacewalk of their five-month mission aboard the International Space Station today, successfully installing protective panels to the hull of the Zvezda service module.    MISSION STATUS CENTER Supersynchronous transfer orbit is target for Atlas 5 It won't be the fastest Atlas rocket at liftoff but next week's inaugural Atlas 5 will be the largest and mightiest ever flown by Lockheed Martin. Liftoff remains on schedule for Wednesday at 6:05 p.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Read our preview of the events to occur during the launch:    FULL STORY    MISSION STATUS CENTER NASA names new crews, replaces Endeavour pilot NASA has assigned crewmembers for several space shuttle missions to continue assembly of the International Space Station, and named the tenth station expedition crew to begin training for a long-duration stay aboard the orbiting outpost. For Endeavour's next mission, Paul Lockhart has replaced Gus Loria to an injury.    FULL STORY Thursday: August 15, 2002   2030 GMT Controllers looking for CONTOUR comet probe In a crucial event for NASA's $159 million CONTOUR mission, a solid-fuel kick motor on the spacecraft was supposed to fire today to propel the probe out of Earth orbit and into solar orbit for the journey to ultimately intercept at least two comets. The maneuver, scheduled at 4:49 a.m. EDT about 140 miles above the Indian Ocean, was to occur while the craft was out of contact with the ground. But as of 4:30 p.m. EDT, officials said they still had not regained communications with CONTOUR, 11 hours after expecting to hear the craft's signal. A search is underway.    CONTOUR MISSION PREVIEW STORY Current Atlas rocket models not going away for awhile The Atlas 5 rocket is the future but its siblings -- the Atlas 2 and 3 vehicles -- won't be riding off into the sunset quite yet. With a few more years of heritage Atlas rockets launching from Cape Canaveral's Complex 36, Lockheed Martin has opted to combine those operations with Atlas 5 at Complex 41, forming one team of over 250 workers.    FULL STORY    MISSION STATUS CENTER 500th comet found by SOHO Amateur astronomers worldwide placed their bets, crossed their fingers and waited in anticipation for the ESA-NASA Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft to spot its 500th comet. Their patience was rewarded on August 12 as SOHO, a mission actually designed to research the Sun, revealed its own type of royal flush with comet C/2002 P3 (SOHO).    FULL STORY Wednesday: August 14, 2002   0604 GMT Atlas 5 rocket dubbed 'dial-a-rocket' for its flexibility When the first Atlas 5 rocket vaults skyward a week from today, it will represent the pinnacle of evolution for Lockheed Martin's family of expendable launchers. Born of the U.S. Air Force's competition to develop next-generation rockets, the Atlas 5 is expected to be around through 2020, providing dependable and more affordable access to space.    FULL STORY Bulk source of Universe's gamma rays said identified Scientists at Columbia University and Barnard College have found that the majority of the gamma rays outside of our galaxy are likely emitted by galaxy clusters and other massive structures. This may resolve a 30-year-old mystery as to the origin of the Universe's gamma-ray background.    FULL STORY After a decade, TOPEX/Poseidon adventure sails on It's been sailing the blackness of space now for a decade: a silent sentinel, watching over the world's oceans, looking for signs of the mysterious El Nino and La Nina phenomena whose cantankerous dispositions wreak havoc on our weather.    FULL STORY Tuesday: August 13, 2002   0310 GMT Atlas 5 changes the way rockets are prepared to fly A launch complex that has been around for 40 years is now one of the most modern on the planet after undergoing an overhaul to become the home of Lockheed Martin's Atlas 5 for the new millennium.    FULL STORY NASA studying potentially serious crawler problem NASA and contractor engineers are troubleshooting cracked bearings in the space agency's two Apollo-era crawler-transporters used to move space shuttles from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pad.    FULL STORY Amazingly sharp image taken of lunar landscape Thirty-three years after the first manned landing on the Moon, the European Southern Observatory has obtained what may be the sharpest image of the lunar surface ever recorded from the ground. The photo shows an area about 700 km from the Apollo 11 landing site.    FULL STORY Monday: August 12, 2002   0400 GMT Atlas 5 rocket takes center stage for crucial debut A new era in American space rocketry dawns next week as the Atlas 5 soars on its maiden voyage, carrying with it Lockheed Martin's future in the commercial satellite launch industry and the U.S. military's hopes for reliable access to the final frontier.    FULL STORY    ARCHIVED ATLAS 5 COVERAGE				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.