Spaceflight Now

Sunday: January 19, 2003		0001 GMT

Astronauts 'batting 1,000' in space research Two days into one of the most ambitious shuttle science missions in years, the commander of the shuttle Columbia said his dual-shift team has encountered remarkably few problems and that "things are going really well." FULL STORY NASA TELEVISION SCHEDULE ASTRONAUTS' MASTER FLIGHT PLAN
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Saturday: January 18, 2003		0230 GMT

Crew shares some of their launch day experiences Columbia commander Rick Husband on Friday downlinked video footage recorded aboard the shuttle during Thursday's launch, including views inside the cockpit during ascent and the external fuel tank after it was jettisoned. Clips are available to our Spaceflight Now Plus subscribers:

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Experiment activations on track aboard Columbia While it's not unusual these days to turn on the TV and watch construction projects going on in outer space, it is a bit out of the ordinary when ants - not astronauts - are the ones doing the building. FULL STORY

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Friday: January 17, 2003		0502 GMT

Shuttle Columbia rockets into orbit for science flight With fighter planes and radars scanning the sky for intruders, the shuttle Columbia thundered away on a marathon 16-day science mission Thursday, carrying a crew of seven - including the first Israeli astronaut - scores of experiments and a menagerie of animal and insect research subjects. FULL STORY MISSION STATUS CENTER LAUNCH EVENTS TIMELINE

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Researchers seek 'heart' of black hole mystery New research, funded by NASA and the University of Tokyo, has shown astronomers may not yet have uncovered the mystery at the heart of one of the Galaxy's oldest star systems, the globular cluster M15. FULL STORY

Vital signs of life on distant worlds Detecting Earth-sized planets is hard enough but how does an astrobiologist decide which of them are inhabited? Scientists are now working to understand what signals life might give off into space, so that when they do detect Earth-like planets they know what to look for. FULL STORY

Thursday: January 16, 2003		0345 GMT

Shuttle to launch Thursday The protective rotating service structure was rolled away from space shuttle Columbia at launch pad 39A late this afternoon as technicians began preparations to load a half-million gallons of super-cold propellants into the ship overnight. Liftoff remains scheduled for 10:39 a.m. EST Thursday at the opening of a 2 1/2-hour launch window. MISSION STATUS CENTER - updates! NASA TELEVISION SCHEDULE LAUNCH EVENTS TIMELINE ASTRONAUTS' MASTER FLIGHT PLAN
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Mission preview: Columbia's research flight The shuttle Columbia is poised for blastoff Thursday on a marathon 16-day microgravity research mission, carrying scores of experiments and a menagerie of animal, plant, insect and human research subjects, including the first Israeli astronaut. FULL STORY

Stellar cocoons found in harsh environment Astronomers have discovered dozens of potential stellar cocoons within the hostile environment of the Carina Nebula, including some oddballs with bulbous heads, irregular shapes and long, thin tails. Each of these objects may harbor disks of gas and dust that could one day form planetary systems. FULL STORY

Earth's clock of life In its 4.5 billion years, Earth has evolved from its hot, violent birth to the celebrated watery blue planet that stands out in pictures from space. But in a new book, two noted University of Washington astrobiologists say the planet already has begun the long process of devolving into a burned-out cinder, eventually to be swallowed by the sun. FULL STORY

Two Americans take spacewalk outside station Space station commander Kenneth Bowersox and science officer Donald Pettit completed a six-hour, 51-minute spacewalk Wednesday to help deploy a huge radiator panel and to carry out other tasks necessary for ongoing station assembly work. It was the 50th spacewalk dedicated to the international space station. PREVIEW STORY MISSION STATUS CENTER

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Wednesday: January 15, 2003		0400 GMT

Rocket issues keep Rosetta grounded indefinitely The European Space Agency's ambitious Rosetta comet explorer has been grounded indefinitely due to continuing concerns with the Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket that will launch the costly probe, forcing scientists to replan the mission for liftoff sometime in the future. FULL STORY

Space station spacewalk on tap Wednesday Space station commander Kenneth Bowersox and science officer Donald Pettit are gearing up for a planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk Wednesday to help deploy a huge radiator panel and to carry out other tasks necessary for ongoing station assembly work. FULL STORY MISSION STATUS CENTER

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Next week's Titan 4B rocket launch delayed The Air Force has postponed next Tuesday's planned liftoff of a Lockheed Martin Titan 4B rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The reasoning behind the delay is expected to be announced tomorrow. The rocket will carry the sixth and final Milstar military communications satellite.

Experiment stowage begins Technicians at the Kennedy Space Center were spending Tuesday loading experiment samples, subjects and hardware into a Spacehab module in the shuttle Columbia's cargo bay in preparation for launch Thursday on a microgravity research mission. With no technical problems at pad 39A, forecasters continue to predict a 95 percent chance of good weather during Columbia's launch window. FULL STORY
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Tuesday: January 14, 2003		0317 GMT

Three new moons found around Neptune A team of astronomers has discovered three previously unknown moons of Neptune. This boosts the number of known satellites of the gas giant to eleven. These moons are the first to be discovered orbiting Neptune since the Voyager 2 flyby in 1989, and the first discovered from a ground-based telescope since 1949. FULL STORY

NASA starts counting down to Thursday's shuttle launch Countdown clocks began ticking late Sunday for launch of the shuttle Columbia Thursday on a 16-day microgravity research mission featuring dozens of high-tech experiments and a seven-member crew that includes the first Israeli astronaut. FULL STORY
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Early afterglow of gamma-ray burst caught A team of University of California, Berkeley, astronomers say that its robotic telescope has captured one of the earliest images ever of the visible afterglow of a gamma-ray burst. The telescope started its exposures 108 seconds after the burst was detected by the HETE-2 satellite and continued for more than 2.5 hours, until brightening of the dawn sky halted the observations. FULL STORY

Monday: January 13, 2003		0720 GMT

Delta 2 pulls double duty with launch of two satellites Two NASA spacecraft -- one that will bounce laser beams off Earth to gauge environmental changes, the other to study relics of a supernova explosion in our galactic neighborhood -- rode a Boeing Delta 2 rocket into orbit Sunday from California. FULL STORY MISSION STATUS CENTER

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Shuttle countdown to begin NASA managers have given approval to begin the three-day launch countdown for Thursday's blastoff of space shuttle Columbia on a microgravity science mission. The decision was made during a teleconference Sunday to review the health of critical bearings in the ship's fuel lines. The final resolution of the technical issue will be made during a management meeting Tuesday. EARLIER STORY
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Hypergiant erupts An international team of astronomers announced last week that they have observed a huge eruption by a hypergiant star that blasted nearly 10,000 times the mass of the Earth into space. The star Rho Cassiopeiae lost more mass than in any other stellar eruption observed by astronomers. FULL STORY

Coronal activity may be buried alive in red giants When Earth's sun expands into a red giant star in roughly five billion years, long after Earth has become uninhabitable, the hydrogen core will be burned out and the bloated outer shell will be cool and murky. FULL STORY

News Archive
Jan. 6-12: Farthest known planet discovered; Coriolis launched to track ocean winds, solar storms; ; Nozzle failure doomed Ariane 5 rocket; Biggest zoom lens in space extends Hubble's reach; New lower limit for age of universe claimed.

Dec. 30-Jan. 5: China launches fourth Shenzhou capsule; Russian rocket delivers Canadian satellite in space; Ariane 5 launch failure investigation delays Rosetta; Engine 'destroyed' in Proton mission failure; Volcanoes on Jovian moon spew salt into atmosphere.

Dec. 23-29: Giant X-ray disk sheds light on elliptical galaxies; Integral's first look at the gamma-ray Universe; First elusive 'dark' gamma-ray burst caught; NASA tests future flight vehicle concepts.

Dec. 16-22: Clouds discovered at south pole of Saturn's moon Titan; Workhorse Ariane 4 rocket flies its next to last mission; Titan 2 off till January; Second Delta 4 rocket erected on the launch pad; Young star cluster aglow with mysterious cloud; Six satellite cargos ride Dnepr booster to space.

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Gemini 7

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