Sunday: September 1, 2002   0301 GMT Culbertson hangs up his astronaut helmet Astronaut Frank Culbertson ended his NASA career, retiring last week from the U.S. astronaut corps to pursue new opportunities in the private sector. He was an International Space Station commander, space shuttle commander and pilot, and NASA manager for the Phase 1 Shuttle-Mir Program.    FULL STORY The Sun's twisted mysteries Solar physicists have found new clues to the thirty year old puzzle of why the Sun ejects huge bubbles of electrified gas, laced with magnetic field, known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs). They explain that the key to understanding CMEs, which can cause electricity black outs on Earth, may be due to twisted magnetic fields originating deep within the heart of the Sun.    FULL STORY Saturday: August 31, 2002   0200 GMT New telescope to help explain key question A multi-institutional team of scientists led by the University of Chicago will receive $16.6 million from the National Science Foundation over the next five years to build a telescope at the South Pole aimed at piercing one of the darkest secrets of the universe.    FULL STORY NASA study finds rapid changes in polar ice sheets Recent NASA airborne measurements and a new review of space-based measurements of the thickness of Earth's polar ice sheets concludes they are changing much more rapidly than previously believed, with unknown consequences for global sea levels and Earth's climate.    FULL STORY Friday: August 30, 2002   0433 GMT Lance Bass defends space station visit 'N Sync's Lance Bass, putting his boy band career on hold for an improbable flight to the international space station, shrugged off questions about his qualifications Thursday, saying he's had "tons and tons and tons" of emergency training and poses no safety threat to the station or his crewmates.    FULL STORY Video coverage for subscribers only:    VIDEO: SOYUZ 5 TAXI CREW NEWS CONFERENCE QT or RV    VIDEO: LANCE BASS IN TRAINING QT or RV    SUBSCRIBE NOW Space weather bouts growing concern While weather likely has been a common topic of conversation since ancient humans first learned to articulate their thoughts millennia ago, one of the hottest topics today among scientists is space weather.    FULL STORY NASA awards payload processing contract NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida has chosen Boeing Space Operations Co., Titusville, Fla., for the Checkout, Assembly and Payload Processing Services (CAPPS) contract. CAPPS is the follow-on contract to the Payload Ground Operations Contract that has been performed by the Boeing Company since 1987.    FULL STORY Thursday: August 29, 2002   0400 GMT Ariane 5 flies successful mission for Europe An Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket lifted off from the jungles of South America Wednesday night, lofting a communications spacecraft to bridge the Atlantic and an advanced European weather satellite.    FULL STORY    MISSION STATUS CENTER Biggest gamma ray search starts in Namibia The world's most sensitive gamma ray telescopes are being inaugurated in Namibia in Southwest Africa next week. The High Energy Stereoscopic System will look for gamma rays produced by the most energetic particles in the Universe.    FULL STORY Wednesday: August 28, 2002   0401 GMT Ariane 5 launch scrubbed Launch of Arianespace's Ariane 5 rocket carrying a pair of satellites to bring better weather forecasts and communications to the European continent was scrubbed Tuesday evening because of technical problems. Liftoff has been rescheduled for Wednesday.    MISSION STATUS CENTER - updates! Delta 4 rocket put through countdown rehearsal Boeing conducted its first countdown rehearsal with the Delta 4 rocket at Cape Canaveral's Complex 37 on Monday evening, fueling the new expendable booster in a simulation of launch day activities.    FULL STORY    ARCHIVED DELTA 4 COVERAGE ESA studies the Sun-Earth climate link Meteorologists can no longer view the Earth as an isolated system. Both long-term climate changes and day-to-day weather show links with the Sun's activity. Scientists therefore study the nature of those links intensely. With data from ESA's spaceprobes SOHO, Cluster, and Ulysses, we now have the information we need to solve the mystery of how the Sun's activity affects the climate here on Earth.    FULL STORY Scientists confirm age of meteorite collision A team of geologists has determined the age of the oldest known meteorite impact on Earth - a catastrophic event that generated massive shockwaves across the planet billions of years before a similar event helped wipe out the dinosaurs.    FULL STORY Tuesday: August 27, 2002   0204 GMT NASA appoints CONTOUR mission investigation team NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe has announced that Chief Engineer Theron M. Bradley Jr. will lead a team to investigate the apparent loss of the CONTOUR mission space probe. The investigation team will independently examine all aspects of the CONTOUR mission, which has been out of contact with controllers since a scheduled engine firing Aug. 15.    FULL STORY    TEAM SCALES BACK CONTOUR MONITOR NASA scientific balloon sets world record Slowly rising from the Northwest region of Manitoba, Canada, near a small gold-mining town called Lynn Lake, a massive NASA balloon began a journey Sunday that took it to the fringes of space. Silently drifting in the rarefied upper edges of our atmosphere, the scientific balloon reached a peak altitude of 161,000 feet, and with a volume of 60 million cubic feet, was the largest balloon ever launched successfully.    FULL STORY Monday: August 26, 2002   1100 GMT Cosmonauts go to work outside the space station Expedition Five commander Valery Korzun and flight engineer Sergei Treschev took a five-hour spacewalk outside the International Space Station today, swapping out experiments and attaching radio antennas and other equipment.    MISSION STATUS CENTER European Ariane 5 to loft dual payload Tuesday An Ariane 5 rocket is due for liftoff Tuesday evening with a pair of satellites to bring better weather forecasts and communications to the European continent. Launch is slated for 2230 GMT (6:30 p.m. EDT) from the ELA-3 launch pad at the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana.    MISSION STATUS CENTER Delta 4 set for first countdown demonstration Boeing plans to conduct the first of two countdown dress rehearsals as early as Monday evening for its new Delta 4 rocket at Cape Canaveral's Complex 37. The test will see the rocket fully fueled as the launch team conducts a mock launch day. Officials delayed the rehearsal on Saturday due to a computer-related glitch. The next demonstration, scheduled for early September, will feature a brief firing of the rocket's main engine.    ARCHIVED DELTA 4 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.