Sunday: October 19, 2003  0401 GMT
Weather satellite finally escapes grasp of hard luck
Leaving behind three difficult years of delays and disappointments, a seemingly jinxed U.S. military weather satellite finally enjoyed a reversal of fortune Saturday as it successfully soared into space atop the final Titan 2 rocket.
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   MISSION STATUS CENTER
   TITAN 2 FINALE
   A LOOK BACK AT MISSION'S SAGA
Hidden black holes discovered by Integral
Integral, the European Space Agency's powerful gamma-ray space telescope, has discovered what seems to be a new class of astronomical objects. These are binary systems, probably including a black hole or a neutron star, embedded in a thick cocoon of cold gas.
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Saturday: October 18, 2003  0831 GMT
New crew launches to space station
American, Russian and Spanish astronauts set sail to the International Space Station this morning, safely rocketing into Earth orbit atop a Soyuz launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Central Asia.
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   VIDEO: EXPEDITION 8 MISSION PREVIEW BRIEFING QT
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Photo gallery: Sunrise rollout of Soyuz rocket
The Russian Soyuz rocket was moved from the processing facility to the launch pad on Thursday in preparation to carry the Expedition 8 crew to the International Space Station. This photo gallery illustrates the rocket's trek.
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Titan 2 rocket cleared for launch Saturday
Ready for its fifth countdown in 33 months, the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program F16 spacecraft and the final Titan 2 rocket will try again Saturday to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Liftoff is scheduled for 1617 GMT (12:17 p.m. EDT). Check our status center for ongoing coverage.
   MISSION STATUS CENTER - live updates!
   TITAN 2 FINALE
   LAUNCH EVENTS TIMELINE
   COUNTDOWN STARTS
   EARLIER STORY
Friday: October 17, 2003  0721 GMT
New crew poised to keep human presence on station
The Expedition 8 crew blasts off early Saturday aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket to keep the International Space Station staffed with full-time "caretakers" while construction of the orbiting lab remains suspended by NASA's grounded space shuttle fleet. Launch is scheduled for 0538 GMT (1:38 a.m. EDT).
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   VIDEO: EXPEDITION 8 MISSION PREVIEW BRIEFING QT
   VIDEO: CREW NEWS CONFERENCE WITH U.S. REPORTERS QT
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India successfully launches remote sensing satellite
A new Earth-observing satellite rocketed into space today for India, giving the nation a new eye in the sky to monitor civilian activities and their impact on the environment.
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Last Titan 2 rocket could launch this weekend
Launch of the Titan 2 launch has been pushed back until at least Saturday while engineers perform additional analysis on the rocket's Inertial Measurement Unit guidance computer. A glitch was noted during Thursday's countdown, prompting officials to scrub the day's launch attempt. Check our status center for ongoing coverage.
   MISSION STATUS CENTER - live updates!
   TITAN 2 FINALE
   LAUNCH EVENTS TIMELINE
   COUNTDOWN STARTS
   EARLIER STORY
Thursday: October 16, 2003  0207 GMT
Shenzhou safely returns to Earth
Wrapping up a historic day in space, the Shenzhou 5 return capsule parachuted to a soft touchdown late Wednesday, bringing to an end China's first manned voyage into space and opening the door for a wide variety of future plans in the final frontier.
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   MISSION STATUS CENTER
Titan 2 rocket to launch military satellite Thursday
The final Titan 2 rocket will try again Thursday to launch the long-delayed Defense Meteorological Satellite Program F16 spacecraft on a $450 million mission to monitor weather conditions around the globe for U.S. military forces. Wednesday's launch attempt from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California was scrubbed. Check our status center for ongoing coverage.
   MISSION STATUS CENTER - live updates!
   TITAN 2 FINALE
   LAUNCH EVENTS TIMELINE
   COUNTDOWN STARTS
   EARLIER STORY
CONTOUR mishap board completes investigation
NASA's Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR) investigation board has identified four possible causes for the failure of the comet-rendezvous mission launched in July 2002. The Board concluded the probable proximate cause for this accident was structural failure of the spacecraft due to plume heating during the embedded solid-rocket motor burn.
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IN OTHER NEWS  Additional stories making news today
Einstein was right, experimenters find -- Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity states that information cannot travel faster than the speed of light in a vacuum. In some highly specialized "fast-light" media, however, some experimental physicists believe they have seen light travel faster.

Loral selected by PanAmSat to build new satellite -- Space Systems/Loral announced Wednesday that PanAmSat has agreed to the design and construction of a new satellite. Revenue for the construction of the satellite will be in excess of $100 million. The Galaxy 16 satellite, a C- and Ku-band spacecraft with 48 transponders, is to be delivered December 31, 2005.
Wednesday: October 15, 2003  0331 GMT
CHINA ORBITS MAN
Over a decade in the making and four decades behind the Soviet Union and United States, China became only the third nation on the planet to mount a manned space mission Wednesday when a single crewman vaulted into space inside a capsule for a one-day flight.
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Titan 2 poised for finale
When the Titan 2 rocket blasts off today, it will bring to conclusion the decades-long program that began as a missile in the United States' arsenal against the Soviet Union, launched NASA's Gemini astronauts and in recent years carried smaller satellites into space. Launch is scheduled for 1617 GMT (12:17 p.m. EDT).
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   MISSION STATUS CENTER - updates
   LAUNCH EVENTS TIMELINE
Clocks counting down to last Titan 2 rocket launch
The countdown is underway for Wednesday's launch of the final Titan 2 rocket on a long-delayed mission carrying a military weather satellite.
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   EARLIER STORY
Orbital Sciences joins Lockheed's OSP team
Orbital Sciences will join the Lockheed Martin/Northrop Grumman team that is competing for full-scale development of NASA's Orbital Space Plane. NASA is expected to choose a prime contractor team by August 2004 for full-scale development of an OSP.
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Tuesday: October 14, 2003  0517 GMT
China ready for history-making human spaceflight
If all goes according to plan, China will join one of the most exclusive international clubs this week when the country's much-awaited inaugural manned flight is expected to blast off from its space base in a remote part of the communist nation. Launch could occur as early as tonight.
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SIRTF focused on universe
The Space Infrared Telescope Facility, NASA's fourth and final Great Observatory, has been successfully focused. This crucial milestone which will enable the observatory's infrared eyes to see the cosmos in clear detail was achieved after a series of delicate adjustments were made to the telescope's secondary mirror.
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Countdown clocks to begin ticking for Titan 2 launch
The Titan 2 rocket's 26-hour launch countdown begins this morning at Vandenberg Air Force Base for Wednesday's liftoff carrying a military weather satellite.
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   MISSION STATUS CENTER
   LAUNCH EVENTS TIMELINE
Monday: October 13, 2003  0146 GMT
Long, surreal road for infamous satellite launch
It is a rocket launch like no other. On the launch pad three times in the past three years, getting as close as 30 seconds from liftoff in early 2001, a $450 million military weather satellite mission could finally fly this week from California. This story recaps the saga of the DMSP F16 satellite and the series of problems that have kept it grounded.
   FULL STORY
   MISSION STATUS CENTER
   LAUNCH EVENTS TIMELINE
News Archive
Oct. 6-12: China on the cusp of its first human spaceflight; Expansion of universe once sluggish, now speeding up; Team picked to build NASA hypersonic vehicles; Cape's next-to-last Titan 4 rocket moved to launch pad.

Sept. 29-Oct. 5: NASA moves shuttle launch date target and formally adds new flight; Communications satellite launched from Pacific Ocean; Saturn-bound spacecraft tests Einstein's theory; SMART 1 fires up its ion engine for first time; Hubble makes mosaic of majestic Sombrero Galaxy.

Sept. 22-28: Galileo spacecraft crashes into Jupiter; Ariane trifecta: Moon probe, two other craft launched; Hubble uncovers Uranus' smallest moons yet seen; NASA completes Orbital Space Plane design review; Sharpest ever color view of Mars captured by Hubble; 'Planet-swallowing' giant star identified.

Sept. 15-21: NASA mission management team gets major revamp; First supernovae seeded universe with stuff of life; Prevailing theory about cosmic explosions opposed; Distant star bursts provide key to the origin of galaxies; Problem shuts down Telstar 4 communications satellite.

Sept. 8-14: Titan 4 rocket launches cargo cloaked in secrecy; Farthest, faintest solar system objects found; The slant on Saturn's rings; Sunlight makes asteroids spin in strange ways; MIT researchers reassess asteroid hazards.

More news  See our weekly archive of space news.








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