Spaceflight Now

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. MISSION STATUS CENTER LAUNCH EVENTS TIMELINE PREVIOUS TITAN 4 LAUNCH COVERAGE

Video coverage for subscribers only: VIDEO: THE TITAN 4 ROCKET LIFTS OFF WITH DSP-22 QT VIDEO: 15-MINUTE CLIP OF COUNTDOWN TO TITAN/IUS SEPARATION QT VIDEO: THE DSP SATELLITE UNDERGOES LAUNCH PREPS QT VIDEO: DSP-22 MOUNTED ATOP ROCKET AT LAUNCH PAD QT VIDEO: ANIMATION OF DSP SATELLITE IN SPACE QT VIDEO: TITAN 4 ROCKET BACKS OUT OF SMARF BUILDING QT VIDEO: THE ROCKET MAKES ITS WAY TO LAUNCH PAD QT SUBSCRIBE NOW
Photo collection shows rollback of pad tower Just after a dense blanket of fog lifted, the mobile service tower was retracted from around the Titan 4B rocket at Complex 40 Saturday morning.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. ENTER PHOTO GALLERY

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. FULL STORY

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. MISSION STATUS CENTER

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. FULL STORY

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. MISSION STATUS CENTER LAUNCH EVENTS TIMELINE PREVIOUS TITAN 4 LAUNCH COVERAGE

Video coverage for subscribers only: VIDEO: TITAN 4 ROCKET BACKS OUT OF SMARF BUILDING QT VIDEO: THE ROCKET MAKES ITS WAY TO LAUNCH PAD QT SUBSCRIBE NOW
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. FULL STORY

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. FULL STORY

Video coverage for subscribers only: VIDEO: THURSDAY'S SPIRIT AND OPPORTUNITY NEWS CONFERENCE QT SUBSCRIBE NOW
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. FULL STORY

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. FULL STORY

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. FULL STORY

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. FULL STORY

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. FULL STORY

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. FULL STORY

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. FULL STORY

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

Video coverage for subscribers only: VIDEO: ORBITER SPOTS OPPORTUNITY IN CRATER W/NARRATION QT VIDEO: ENGINEER PRESENTS BOUNCING PATH INTO THE CRATER QT VIDEO: OPPORTUNITY SEES BACKSHELL & CHUTE W/NARRATION QT VIDEO: SCIENTIST EXPLAINS ROCK IMAGES FROM OPPORTUNITY QT VIDEO: UPDATE ON SPIRIT'S ROCK STUDY FROM SCIENTIST QT VIDEO: SPIRIT RESUMES DRIVING & USES ITS OWN NAVIGATION QT VIDEO: MONDAY'S MARS ROVER NEWS CONFERENCE QT SUBSCRIBE NOW
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. FULL STORY

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. FULL STORY 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.

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Project Orion

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