Spaceflight Now

Sunday: March 9, 2003		0510 GMT

Delta 4's first Air Force launch scrubbed A series of technical glitches forced Saturday's launch of the Boeing Delta 4 rocket to be scrubbed. Liftoff has been rescheduled for Sunday at the opening of the launch window at 6:43 p.m. (2343 GMT). MISSION STATUS CENTER - updates ASCENT EVENTS TIMELINE LAUNCH PREVIEW STORY

NASA works to eliminate failure scenarios Working through a process of elimination, NASA engineers are focusing on 10 major failure scenarios - and combinations thereof - to explain what went wrong during the shuttle Columbia's catastrophic re-entry. FULL STORY
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Saturday: March 8, 2003		0112 GMT

Plume may have entered wheel well from within wing NASA engineers struggling to match up telemetry from the shuttle Columbia's left wing and hot gas flow patterns found in wing debris increasingly suspect a plume of hot gas may have entered the wing from a breach at or near the leading edge area, close to the ship's fuselage, and worked its way into the left main landing gear wheel well. FULL STORY

Delta 4 rocket poised for first Air Force launch today Boeing's Delta 4 rocket enters U.S. military service today to launch a $210 million relay satellite for the government's national security communications network. Liftoff is set for 6:44 p.m. EST (2344 GMT) from Cape Canaveral, Florida. MISSION STATUS CENTER - updates ASCENT EVENTS TIMELINE LAUNCH PREVIEW STORY LATEST WEATHER FORECAST LAUNCH CUE CARD

Friday: March 7, 2003		0615 GMT

Investigators begin public hearings into accident Shuttle program manager Ronald Dittemore, testifying Thursday before the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, said safety is the agency's "lifeblood" and that his door is always open to any lower-level engineer who might be worried a safety issue is not being properly addressed. FULL STORY INVESTIGATION STATUS CENTER - latest updates

Video coverage for subscribers only: VIDEO: JSC DIRECTOR HOWELL QUESTIONED AT HEARING QT VIDEO: PART 1 OF RON DITTEMORE'S TESTIMONY QT VIDEO: PART 2 OF RON DITTEMORE'S TESTIMONY QT VIDEO: FOAM EXPERT FROM BOEING GOES BEFORE THE BOARD QT VIDEO: AUTHOR OF SHUTTLE PROGRAM REPORT TESTIFIES QT SUBSCRIBE NOW
Scientists report Mars has liquid iron core New information about what is inside Mars shows the Red Planet has a molten liquid-iron core, confirming the interior of the planet has some similarity to Earth and Venus. Researchers analyzing three years of radio tracking data from the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, concluded Mars has not cooled to a completely solid iron core. FULL STORY

Hubble resolves a blaze of stars in a galaxy's core The central region of the small galaxy NGC 1705 blazes with the light of thousands of young and old stars in this image, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. At 17 million light-years away, the individual stars of the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 1705 are out of range of all but the sharp eye of Hubble. FULL STORY

Thursday: March 6, 2003		0210 GMT

Delta 4 rocket poised for first U.S. Air Force launch Boeing's Delta 4 rocket enters U.S. military service this weekend to launch a $210 million relay satellite for the government's national security communications network. FULL STORY MISSION STATUS CENTER LATEST WEATHER FORECAST LAUNCH CUE CARD

New members added to Columbia board Columbia Accident Investigation Board Chairman Admiral Hal Gehman asked NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe to appoint three new members to the CAIB. The appointments were immediately approved, the agency announced Wednesday. FULL STORY

Team pegs brightness of history's brightest star A team of astronomers headed by Frank Winkler of Middlebury College has combined precise digital observations with simple mathematics to estimate the apparent brightness of an exploding star whose light reached Earth nearly a thousand years ago, when it produced a display that was probably the brightest stellar event witnessed in recorded human history. FULL STORY

Wednesday: March 5, 2003		0020 GMT

'Slag' suggests extreme heating near front of wing The Columbia board has not yet pinned down the location of catastrophic breach that allowed superheated air to enter the doomed ship's left wing during re-entry Feb. 1. But intriguing deposits of aluminum-and-steel slag behind panels making up the leading edge of Columbia's left wing near where it joins the fuselage suggest the breach may have occurred toward the front of the wing. FULL STORY

Video coverage for subscribers only: VIDEO: TUESDAY'S INVESTIGATION BOARD NEWS CONFERENCE QT SUBSCRIBE NOW
Tuesday: March 4, 2003		0420 GMT

China reportedly planning lunar exploration The most detailed Chinese plans yet to explore the Moon using unmanned spacecraft were revealed Monday in state-run news sources that quoted the nation's leading scientists in the field. FULL STORY

CHIPS begins search for birthplace of solar systems The Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer satellite is living up to the adage "good things come in small packages," as the suitcase-size spacecraft is entering its second month of providing data to scientists about the birthplace of solar systems. FULL STORY

NASA tests Wright stuff It triggers the imagination. What would aviation pioneer Orville Wright think about a reproduction of his 1903 Wright Flyer being tested in a wind tunnel he used to visit? FULL STORY

Monday: March 3, 2003		0258 GMT

A cocoon found inside the Black Widow's web NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory image of the mysterious "Black Widow" pulsar reveals the first direct evidence of an elongated cocoon of high-energy particles. This discovery shows this billion-year-old rejuvenated pulsar is an extremely efficient generator of a high-speed flow of matter and antimatter particles. FULL STORY

News Archive
Feb. 24-March 2: Video shows Columbia crew unaware of impending disaster; Flight controllers downplay emails about Columbia; Europe pushes ahead with its new Vega rocket; Massive gas cloud around Jupiter revealed; Pioneer 10 sends last signal; Remnants of ancient stars found in Earth's atmosphere

Feb. 17-23: New data shows Columbia's state in final moments; Crew agrees manned space in 'very serious situation'; Melting snow could be cause of gullies on Mars; Missing mass exists as warm intergalactic fog; Where's the coolest place in the Universe?

Feb. 10-16: Latest on Columbia investigation; Age of universe refined; Goodbye Ariane 4: Finale flight for workhorse rocket; Study shows how water may have flowed on Mars.

Feb. 3-9: Complete coverage of Columbia tragedy; NASA mulls space station launch, crew options; NASA's proposed 2004 budget quietly released.

Jan. 27-Feb. 2: COLUMBIA AND CREW LOST - In a devastating tragedy that took the lives of seven astronauts, the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated in the skies over Texas on Feb. 1 as the ship was heading back to Earth.

Jan. 20-26: Air-launched rocket gives boost to climate research; Shock waves may explain water in meteorites; First Milky Ways found at edge of Universe; NASA announces Educator Astronaut Program; Vandenberg receives first Boeing Delta 4 rocket.

More news See our weekly archive of space news.

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