Spaceflight Now

Sunday: February 1, 2004		1931 GMT

Comm Check...The Final Flight of Shuttle Columbia Columbia and seven astronauts were lost one year ago Sunday as the shuttle disintegrated above Texas just minutes from touchdown. Respected aerospace journalists Michael Cabbage and William Harwood have written a book on the Columbia tragedy. You can read an excerpt here: CHAPTER ONE MISSION COVERAGE ARCHIVE OUR JOURNAL FROM FEB. 1, 2003

Opportunity finds what it went to Mars looking for With the pop of a champagne cork, a scientist announced Saturday that the Mars rover Opportunity has found scattered across the landing site a mineral that typically forms in water. FULL STORY

Saturday: January 31, 2004		1401 GMT

Opportunity rover a true Marsmobile The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity successfully drove off its lander base Saturday, reaching the Red Planet's surface two days ahead of schedule. The craft will spend a few days examining the soil before rolling to the bedrock outcrop nearby. FULL STORY DRIVE OFF MOVED UP PREVIEW STORY ROVER DRIVE IMAGES: OPPORTUNITY'S VIEW LOOKING AT LANDER FORWARD-LOOKING VIEW FROM OPPORTUNITY VIEW FROM CAMERA MAST ASSEMBLY THE LANDER AS SEEN IN 3-D

Video coverage for subscribers only: VIDEO: MISSION CONTROL SENDS COMMAND FOR THE DRIVE QT VIDEO: OPPORTUNITY'S DRIVE OFF LANDER IS CONFIRMED QT VIDEO: IMAGES RECEIVED FROM ROVER SHOWING EMPTY LANDER QT VIDEO: SATURDAY'S POST-DRIVE NEWS CONFERENCE QT VIDEO: HEMATITE MINERAL FOUND AT LANDING SITE QT VIDEO: 3-D MODEL OF OPPORTUNITY'S LANDING SITE CRATER QT VIDEO: FRIDAY'S ROVER STATUS AND SCIENCE NEWS CONFERENCE QT VIDEO: OPPORTUNITY STAND UP & WHEEL DEPLOY W/NARRATION QT VIDEO: ALL THE IMAGES RELEASED WEDNESDAY WITH NARRATION QT VIDEO: COMPARE VIKING, PATHFINDER & ROVER LANDING SITES QT SUBSCRIBE NOW
Cargo freighter docks to International Space Station A Russian Progress resupply vessel made a successful automated docking with the International Space Station at 8:13 a.m. EST Saturday, linking up with the Zvezda service module's aft port while flying above Central Asia. The ship is loaded with food, fuel, equipment and experiments. EARLIER STORY

Chandra finds that star has the right stuff Astronomers have used an observation by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to make the best case yet that a star can be engulfed by its companion star and survive. This discovery will help astronomers better understand how closely coupled stars, and perhaps even stars and planets, evolve when one of the stars expands enormously in its red giant phase. FULL STORY

Friday: January 30, 2004		0311 GMT

Opportunity could drive off lander base Saturday night Launched to Mars folded and crouched in its landing cocoon, NASA's Opportunity rover has nearly completed the complex blossoming into a road-ready vehicle and could take its first drive onto the Red Planet's surface Saturday night. FULL STORY MISSION STATUS CENTER - updates! PREVIOUS COVERAGE

Video coverage for subscribers only: VIDEO: OPPORTUNITY STAND UP & WHEEL DEPLOY W/NARRATION QT VIDEO: ALL THE IMAGES RELEASED WEDNESDAY WITH NARRATION QT VIDEO: COMPARE VIKING, PATHFINDER & ROVER LANDING SITES QT SUBSCRIBE NOW
Fitful young star sputters to maturity in Rosette Nebula A duo of Chinese and American astronomers have discovered a young star in the fierce environs of the Rosette Nebula that is ejecting a complex jet of material riddled with knots and bow shocks. FULL STORY

Satellites help improve ocean condition forecasts Freighters, cruise lines, marine rescuers and coastal managers are among those who could benefit from prototype three-dimensional, three-day ocean condition forecasts created with the assistance of NASA satellite data, computer models and on-site ocean measurements. FULL STORY

Thursday: January 29, 2004		1248 GMT

Russians launch resupply ship to space station A load of vital supplies and parts for the International Space Station was successfully dispatched from Earth Thursday, blasting off aboard an unmanned Russian Soyuz rocket. Docking with the station is scheduled for Saturday. FULL STORY

Recovering Spirit sends a new picture to controllers Working as space-age surgeons 100 million miles away, ground controllers are trying to precisely pinpoint the software glitch that halted the Mars rover Spirit's mission to explore Gusev Crater last Wednesday. If successful, officials say the robot geologist could be out of recovery and back at work early next week. FULL STORY MISSION STATUS CENTER - updates!

Video coverage for subscribers only: VIDEO: WEDNESDAY'S MARS ROVER STATUS NEWS CONFERENCE QT SUBSCRIBE NOW
Shuttle Challenger crew memorialized on Mars NASA has announced plans to name the landing site of the Mars Opportunity rover in honor of the space shuttle Challenger's final crew. The area in the vast flatland called Meridiani Planum, where Opportunity landed this weekend, will be called the Challenger Memorial Station. READ ANNOUNCEMENT

Video coverage for subscribers only: VIDEO: OPPORTUNITY STAND UP & WHEEL DEPLOY W/NARRATION QT VIDEO: ALL THE IMAGES RELEASED WEDNESDAY WITH NARRATION QT VIDEO: COMPARE VIKING, PATHFINDER & ROVER LANDING SITES QT SUBSCRIBE NOW
Wednesday: January 28, 2004		0722 GMT

18 years after Challenger On a bitterly cold January morning 18 years ago, space shuttle Challenger and her seven-member crew made a fateful voyage into history. Spaceflight Now marks Wednesday's anniversary with a comprehensive timeline of the events of that day. CHALLENGER TIMELINE

Opportunity rover set for 'coolest geologic field trip' The discovery of layered rocks in the Martian bedrock next to the Opportunity's landing platform has scientists anxiously awaiting the rover's exploration of the terrain beginning next week. FULL STORY DOWNLOAD: THE FULL IMAGE DOWNLOAD: 3-D VERSION OF ROCK OUTCROP

Video coverage for subscribers only: VIDEO: EXPERT NARRATION OF THE LAYERED ROCKS DISCOVERED QT VIDEO: TUESDAY'S MARS ROVER STATUS AND SCIENCE BRIEFING QT MORE: PREVIOUS MISSION COVERAGE! SUBSCRIBE NOW
Martian landmarks dedicated to Apollo 1 crew NASA memorialized the Apollo 1 crew - Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee - by dedicating the hills surrounding the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's landing site to the astronauts. The crew of Apollo 1 perished in flash fire during a launch pad test of their Apollo spacecraft 37 years ago Tuesday. READ ANNOUNCEMENT DOWNLOAD: PANORAMA SHOWING HILLS

Tuesday: January 27, 2004		0625 GMT

Reconstructing Spirit's hopeful road to recovery NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit appeared to be teetering on the brink of failure last week when ground controllers lost contact with the craft sitting in Gusev Crater, its arm extended to a rock as the scientific adventure was beginning. Now, engineers are cautiously hopeful that Spirit will soon be restored to full working order. FULL STORY

Latest color postcard from Opportunity rover received New color imagery was released by scientists Monday showing the Opportunity rover sitting in a small crater. There are rock outcrops dispersed throughout the crater and the soil appears to be a mixture of coarse gray grains and fine reddish grains. MISSION STATUS CENTER - updates! DOWNLOAD: THE FULL IMAGE

Video coverage for subscribers only: VIDEO: EXPLORE THE NEW COLOR POSTCARD WITH NARRATION QT VIDEO: MONDAY'S OPPORTUNITY IMAGE & SPIRIT STATUS BRIEFING QT SUBSCRIBE NOW
X-ray shout echoing through space The European Space Agency's X-ray observatory, XMM-Newton, has imaged a spectacular set of rings which appear to expand, with a speed a thousand times faster than that of light, around the point in the sky where a powerful gamma-ray explosion took place in early December. FULL STORY

Massive old star reveals secrets on deathbed Like a doctor trying to understand an elderly patient's sudden demise, astronomers have obtained the most detailed observations ever of an old but otherwise normal massive star just before and after its life ended in a spectacular supernova explosion. FULL STORY

Monday: January 26, 2004		1605 GMT

Opportunity achieves 'interplanetary hole in one' After a seven-month voyage spanning 300 million miles from Earth to Mars, the Opportunity rover ended up inside a tiny crater to the utter delight of mission scientists. FULL STORY MISSION STATUS CENTER - live updates!

Video coverage for subscribers only: VIDEO: DESCENT CAMERA IMAGERY WITH EXPERT NARRATION QT VIDEO: SCIENTIST DESCRIBES LANDSCAPE AROUND OPPORTUNITY QT VIDEO: SUNDAY P.M. SPIRIT & OPPORTUNITY NEWS BRIEFING QT SUBSCRIBE NOW
Bogged down software could explain Spirit ailment The group working to unravel the glitch with Spirit and return the rover to action has narrowed the possible cause of its trouble to three potentials, officials said Sunday afternoon. FULL STORY

British Beagle 2 lander still failing to call from Mars The latest round of attempts to establish communications with the British Beagle 2 lander has turned up only silence. The craft was headed for the surface of Mars on Christmas Day but has never phoned home, leaving controllers mystified of the lander's ultimate fate. MISSION STATUS CENTER

News Archive
Jan. 18-25: Opportunity rover safely arrives at Mars; Opportunity hits scientific jackpot in strange martian world; Spirit suffers 'serious anomaly'; First scientific results from Europe's Mars Express; Building a new West Coast era for Atlas rockets.

Jan. 12-18: President Bush reveals new space initiative; Six-wheeling on Mars: Spirit drives off lander; Spirit's robot arm extended for detailed study of soil; NASA cancels final Hubble telescope servicing mission; Europe's comet orbiter and lander set for rescheduled voyage; Scientists find 'spitting star' imitates black hole.

Jan. 5-11: Continuing coverage of Spirit rover; Columbia crew memorialized on Mars; Chandra locates planetary ore in colliding galaxies; Hubble tells tale of record-breaking galaxy clusters; Suns of all ages possess comets, maybe planets; Sea Launch Zenit makes first 2004 rocket launch.

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Gemini 7

Gemini 7: The NASA Mission Reports covers this 14-day mission by Borman and Lovell as they demonstrated some of the more essential facts of space flight. Includes CD-ROM.

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Apollo patches

The Apollo Patch Collection: Includes all 12 Apollo mission patches plus the Apollo Program Patch. Save over 20% off the Individual price.

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Mars Rover mission patch

A mission patch featuring NASA's Mars Exploration Rover is available from our online.

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Apollo 9 DVD

On the road to the moon, the mission of Apollo 9 stands as an important gateway in experience and procedures. This 2-DVD collection presents the crucial mission on the voyage to the moon.

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Apollo 11 special patch

Special collectors' patch marking the 35th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 moon landing is now available.

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Apollo 12 tribute DVD set

New! Featuring the jovial crew of Pete Conrad, Dick Gordon and Alan Bean, the Apollo 12 mission was struck by lightning shortly after liftoff but proceeded on the second successful exploration voyage to the lunar surface. This three-disc DVD brings the mission to life with extraordinary detail.

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Fallen Heroes special patch

This special 12-inch embroidered patch commemorates the U.S. astronauts who made the ultimate sacrifice, honoring the crews of Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia.

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Women in Space

Women of Space: Cool Careers on the Final Frontier is for girls, young women, and anyone else interested in learning about exciting careers in space exploration. Includes CD-ROM.

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Mars rover poster

This new poster features some of the best pictures from NASA's amazing Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity.

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Apollo 11 special patch

Special collectors' patch marking the 35th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 moon landing is now available.

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Inside Apollo mission control

An insider's view of how Apollo flight controllers operated and just what they faced when events were crucial.

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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.

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Next ISS crew

Own a little piece of history with this official patch for the International Space Station's Expedition 11 crew. We'll ship yours today!

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Apollo Collage

This beautiful one piece set features the Apollo program emblem surrounded by the individual mission logos.

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STS-127 Patch

The official embroidered patch for shuttle Endeavour's flight to finish building Japanese section of the space station.

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Hubble Patch

The official embroidered patch for mission STS-125, the space shuttle's last planned service call to the Hubble Space Telescope, is available for purchase.

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Project Orion

The Orion crew exploration vehicle is NASA's first new human spacecraft developed since the space shuttle a quarter-century earlier. The capsule is one of the key elements of returning astronauts to the Moon.

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Fallen Heroes Patch Collection

The official patches from Apollo 1, the shuttle Challenger and Columbia crews are available in the store.

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