Sunday: February 15, 2004  0225 GMT
Titan 4B rocket launches U.S. military satellite
The Defense Support Program-22 missile warning and nuclear explosion detection satellite was successfully deployed into space Saturday by a Titan 4B rocket and Inertial Upper Stage. The seven-hour launch began at 1:50 p.m. EST (1850 GMT) from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
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Photo collection shows rollback of pad tower
Just after a dense blanket of fog lifted, the mobile service tower was retracted from around the Titan 4B rocket at Complex 40 Saturday morning. Spaceflight Now's Justin Ray was at the pad and shot this gallery of photos.
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Ulysses mission extended
The European Space Agency's Science Programme Committee has unanimously approved a proposal to continue operating the highly successful Ulysses spacecraft until March 2008. This latest extension, the third in the history of the joint ESA-NASA mission, will enable Ulysses to add an important chapter to its survey of the high-latitude heliosphere.
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Saturday: February 14, 2004  0501 GMT
Titan 4 rocket poised for Florida blast off today
A mighty Titan 4B rocket will unleash over three million pounds of thrust today as it lifts off from Cape Canaveral carrying a surveillance satellite used to detect missile launches and nuclear explosions. Today's four-hour launch window opens at 1:21 p.m. EST (1821 GMT).
   MISSION STATUS CENTER
Twin Mars rovers continue their scientific activities
The Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is examining a collection of rocks, including a flaky one nicknamed Mimi, on its lengthy drive to a crater. Meanwhile, Opportunity is preparing to dig a hole to study the soil at its landing site.
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Far away quasars probe end of cosmic dark ages
The most distant known quasars show that some supermassive black holes formed when the universe was merely 6 percent of its current age, or about 700 million years after the big bang.
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Friday: February 13, 2004  0423 GMT
Titan 4 rocket to launch military satellite Saturday
The latest in a long line of surveillance satellites that detect missile launches and nuclear explosions is awaiting liftoff Saturday aboard a Titan 4B rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
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Spitzer Space Telescope sends cosmic Valentine rose
A cluster of newborn stars herald their birth in this interstellar Valentine's Day commemorative picture obtained with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. These bright young stars are found in a rosebud-shaped (and rose-colored) nebulosity known as NGC 7129. The star cluster and its associated nebula are located at a distance of 3300 light-years in the constellation Cepheus.
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International interplanetary networking succeeds
A pioneering demonstration of communications between NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit and the European Space Agency Mars Express orbiter succeeded. While Mars Express was flying over the area Spirit was examining, the orbiter transferred commands from Earth to the rover and relayed data from the robotic explorer back to Earth.
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First Milstar satellite marks 10 years of service
The first U.S. Air Force Milstar communications satellite, built by a team led by Lockheed Martin, has achieved its 10-year design life of on-orbit service, providing our nation's warfighters with secure and reliable communications during military operations since 1994.
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Thursday: February 12, 2004  0357 GMT
Beagle failure investigation formally begins
Launched on a shoestring budget, its size tightly confined, the British Beagle 2 lander headed to Mars for a highly-ambitious mission to look for evidence of life. A Christmas Day touchdown on the Red Planet was planned, but the craft never phoned home and subsequent weeks of searching turned up only silence.
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Cold motor causes Spirit to remain parked for a day
A missed communications window caused by a cold antenna motor on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit prevented the robot from racking up any additional distance on its odometer Tuesday night.
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Gravitational lens reveals heart of a distant galaxy
Many examples are known where a galaxy acts as a gravitational lens, producing multiple images on the sky of a more distant object like a bright quasar hidden behind it. But there has been a persistent mystery for over 20 years: Einstein's general theory of relativity predicts there should be an odd number of images, yet almost all observed lenses have only 2 or 4 known images. Now, astronomers have identified a third, central image of a lensed quasar.
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Wednesday: February 11, 2004  0031 GMT
Spirit rover establishes new Mars driving record
The rover Spirit drove into the Martian history books Monday night by making the longest single-day traverse on the Red Planet, eclipsing the mark set by Mars Pathfinder's Sojourner rover in 1997.
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Reactor research to power journey to Jupiter's moons
A planned U.S. mission to investigate three ice-covered moons of Jupiter will demand fast-paced research, fabrication and realistic non-nuclear testing of a prototype nuclear reactor within two years, says a Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist.
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Mars Express spies Valles Marineris region
This image was acquired by the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter from an altitude of 275 km above the Red Planet. The features in the picture indicate erosional processes possibly caused by water.
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Tuesday: February 10, 2004  0623 GMT
Orbiter sees Opportunity rover on the Martian surface
As navigation experts pinpoint the rover Opportunity's precise location, the orbiting Mars Global Surveyor has spotted the craft sitting in a small crater. In other news Monday, scientists are working to understand mysterious spherical grains scattered around the landing site that the rover's microscopic imager is examining.
   STATUS REPORT
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   VIDEO: SCIENTIST EXPLAINS ROCK IMAGES FROM OPPORTUNITY QT
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Scientists find ozone-destroying molecule
Using measurements from a NASA aircraft flying over the Arctic, Harvard University scientists have made the first observations of a molecule that researchers have long theorized plays a key role in destroying stratospheric ozone, chlorine peroxide.
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Monday: February 9, 2004  0001 GMT
One rover set to cruise, other in science mode
The Mars Exploration Rover Spirit was to leave its first rock subject late Sunday and begin the long journey toward an impact crater, a day later than planned after a self-imposed software hold. Meanwhile, Opportunity has commenced its examination of the rock outcropping at its landing site by taking amazing microscopic images.
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   MISSION STATUS CENTER - updates!
News Archive
Feb. 2-8: Oxygen, carbon discovered in exoplanet atmosphere; Spirit grinds hole in rock; Martian hills dedicated to fallen Columbia crew; American TV watchers to reap benefits of Atlas launch; Supernova blast bonanza in nearby galaxy; New study shows how black holes get their 'kicks'.

Jan. 26-Feb. 1: Opportunity achieves 'interplanetary hole in one'; Opportunity finds what it went to Mars looking for; Martian landmarks dedicated to Apollo 1 crew; Challenger crew memorialized on Mars; Russians launch resupply ship to space station; Fitful young star sputters to maturity in Rosette Nebula.

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.

More news  See our weekly archive of space news.


Soviet Space
For the first time ever available in the West. Rocket & Space Corporation Energia: a complete pictorial history of the Soviet/Russian Space Program from 1946 to the present day all in full color. Available from our store.
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Viking patch
This embroidered mission patch celebrates NASA's Viking Project which reached the Red Planet in 1976.
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Apollo 7 DVD
For 11 days the crew of Apollo 7 fought colds while they put the Apollo spacecraft through a workout, establishing confidence in the machine what would lead directly to the bold decision to send Apollo 8 to the moon just 2 months later.
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Gemini 12
Gemini 12: The NASA Mission Reports covers the voyage of James Lovell and Buzz Aldrin that capped the Gemini program's efforts to prove the technologies and techniques that would be needed for the Apollo Moon landings. Includes CD-ROM.
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Gemini 12
Gemini 12: The NASA Mission Reports covers the voyage of James Lovell and Buzz Aldrin that capped the Gemini program's efforts to prove the technologies and techniques that would be needed for the Apollo Moon landings. Includes CD-ROM.
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Columbia Report
A reproduction of the official accident investigation report into the loss of the space shuttle Columbia and its crew of seven.
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Mars Panorama

DISCOUNTED! This 360 degree image was taken by the Mars Pathfinder, which landed on the Red Planet in July 1997. The Sojourner Rover is visible in the image.
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Apollo 11 Mission Report
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Rocket DVD
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Soviet Space
For the first time ever available in the West. Rocket & Space Corporation Energia: a complete pictorial history of the Soviet/Russian Space Program from 1946 to the present day all in full color. Available from our store.
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Viking patch
This embroidered mission patch celebrates NASA's Viking Project which reached the Red Planet in 1976.
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Apollo 7 DVD
For 11 days the crew of Apollo 7 fought colds while they put the Apollo spacecraft through a workout, establishing confidence in the machine what would lead directly to the bold decision to send Apollo 8 to the moon just 2 months later.
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Gemini 12
Gemini 12: The NASA Mission Reports covers the voyage of James Lovell and Buzz Aldrin that capped the Gemini program's efforts to prove the technologies and techniques that would be needed for the Apollo Moon landings. Includes CD-ROM.
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Current Shuttle Mission Patch
The official embroidered patch for shuttle Atlantis' flight to deliver critical spare equipment to the space station.
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Ares 1-X Patch
The official embroidered patch for the Ares 1-X rocket test flight, is available for purchase.
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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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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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