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News Archive: Jan. 1-31 |
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Mars orbiter views Jupiter
The HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter can take interesting astronomical pictures, team scientists reported Wednesday with release of a photo showing Jupiter as seen from Mars orbit.
 FULL STORY
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Hubble probes structure of alien world's atmosphere
The powerful vision of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has allowed astronomers to study for the first time the layer-cake structure of the atmosphere of a planet orbiting another star. Hubble discovered a dense upper layer of hot hydrogen gas where the super-hot planet's atmosphere is bleeding off into space.
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Station crew completes first in a series of spacewalks
Space station commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and Sunita Williams successfully connected one of two critical ammonia coolant loops Wednesday during the first of two spacewalks devoted to switching the lab complex to its permanent cooling system.
POST-EVA STATUS REPORT
COOLING LINES CONNECTED
MINOR AMMONIA LEAKAGE
PREVIEW STORY
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SEA LAUNCH ROCKET EXPLODES ON PAD
A commercial Sea Launch Zenit 3SL rocket disintegrated in a fiery catastrophe aboard its oceangoing platform Tuesday, destroying a sophisticated telecommunications satellite payload in a dramatic launch pad explosion reminiscent of the space program's early days.
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MISSION STATUS CENTER
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Hubble Space Telescope camera stops working
A state-of-the-art camera aboard the Hubble Space Telescope has been knocked out of action by an electrical glitch, curtailing the flow of high-resolution imagery from the aging observatory until new instruments can be installed during a final shuttle servicing mission in 2008.
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NASA STATEMENT
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Crew set for Japanese lab, Canadian robotics mission
NASA has assigned the crew for space shuttle mission STS-123. The flight will deliver both the first component of the Japanese Experiment Module Kibo and the new Canadian Dextre robotics system to the International Space Station.
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Must dig deeply to seek life on Mars, new report says
Probes seeking life on Mars must dig deeply into young craters, gullies, or recently exposed ice to have a chance of finding any living cells that were not annihilated by radiation, researchers report in a new study. One promising place to look for them is within the ice at Elysium, site of a recently discovered frozen sea, they say.
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Shia Islamic satellite set for liftoff on ICBM cloaked as space booster -- (Aviation Week) Iran has just completed conversion of a powerful ballistic missile into a satellite launch vehicle. But the 25-30-ton rocket could be a wolf in sheep's clothing to test longer-range Iranian missile technologies. The Bush administration will likely view the vehicle as a rogue rocket developed in a cabal of Iran and North Korea.
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Psychedelic Saturn
This psychedelic view of Saturn and its rings is a composite made from images taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera using spectral filters sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light. Cassini acquired the view at a distance of approximately 511,000 miles.
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Shadows on ice
Canyons and mountain peaks snake along the terminator on the crater-covered, icy moon Dione. With the Sun at a low angle on their local horizon, the line of mountain ridges above center casts shadows toward the east. Sunlit terrain seen here is on the anti-Saturn hemisphere of Dione -- the side that always faces away from Saturn.
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Pan's progress
Pan is seen in this color view as it sweeps through the Encke Gap with its attendant ringlets. As the lemon-shaped little moon orbits Saturn, it always keeps its long axis pointed along a line toward the planet. From this vantage point, the dark side of the moon is visible.
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Unexpected cooling in Saturn's upper atmosphere
UK researchers, along with colleagues from Boston University, have found that the hotter than expected temperature of Saturn's upper atmosphere - and that of the other giant planets - is not due to the same mechanism that heats the atmosphere around the Earth's Northern Lights. The researchers findings thus rule out a long held theory.
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NEWSWIRE Links to news across the internet
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Iran set to try space launch -- (Aviation Week) Iran has converted its most powerful ballistic missile into a satellite launch vehicle. The 30-ton rocket could also be a wolf in sheep's clothing for testing longer-range missile strike technologies, Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine reports in its Jan. 29 issue.
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OTHER HEADLINES Additional stories today
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Loral to build EchoStar XIV -- Space Systems/Loral announced that it has been awarded a contract to manufacture EchoStar XIV, a new direct broadcast satellite for DISH Network's television subscribers.
Loral wins Intelsat contract -- Space Systems/Loral has announced that Intelsat Corporation has awarded a contract to manufacture Intelsat 14, a new, high-power C- and Ku-band fixed satellite service satellite.
Alcatel Alenia Space to provide Italian SICRAL-1B -- Alcatel Alenia Space announced that it has signed a Euro 103 million contract with the Italian Ministry of Defense to provide the telecommunication satellite SICRAL-1B. The satellite, dedicated to the Italian Armed Forces, will ensure strategic and tactical communications on the Italian and foreign territories as well as mobile communications between terrestrial, naval and air platforms.
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Craft swing past moon to prepare for solar studies
NASA's twin STEREO spacecraft completed a series of complex maneuvers this week to position the satellites in their mission orbits leading and trailing the Earth. The craft will be set to produce the first 3-D images of the sun by April.
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The jet stream of Titan
A pair of rare celestial alignments that occurred in November 2003 helped an international team of astronomers investigate the far-off world of Titan. In particular, the alignments helped validate the atmospheric model used to design the entry trajectory for ESA's Huygens probe. Now the unique results are helping to place the descent of Huygens in a global context, and to investigate the upper layers of Titan's atmosphere.
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Most distant star clusters found hidden nearby
Astronomers have discovered the most distant population of star clusters ever seen, hidden behind one of the nearest such clusters to Earth. At a distance of more than a billion light-years, the newly discovered star clusters provide a unique probe of what similar systems in our own galaxy once looked like.
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OTHER HEADLINES Additional stories today
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North America's wind patterns shifted in past 30,000 years -- Dartmouth researchers have learned that the prevailing winds in the mid latitudes of North America, which now blow from the west, once blew from the east. They reached this conclusion by analyzing 14,000- to 30,000-year-old wood samples from areas in the mid-latitudes of North America (40-50 deg N), which represents the region north of Denver and Philadelphia and south of Winnipeg and Vancouver.
Aerosol pollution slows down winds and reduces rainfall -- The winds that blow near the surface of the Earth have two beneficial effects: They provide a renewable source of clean energy and they evaporate water, helping rain clouds to build up. But aerosolized particles created from vehicle exhaust and other contaminants can accumulate in the atmosphere and reduce the speed of winds closer to the Earth's surface, which results in less wind power available for wind-turbine electricity and also in reduced precipitation, according to a study by Stanford and NASA researchers.
GeoEye's next-generation satellite reaches major milestone -- GeoEye, the world's largest commercial satellite imaging company, has announced the delivery of the camera for its next-generation commercial imaging satellite to General Dynamics for integration. When operational after its Delta 2 launch later this year, GeoEye-1 will be the world's highest resolution commercial imaging satellite.
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The 2006 hurricane season was near normal
After the record setting season of 2005 with 27 named tropical cyclones, many meteorologists and hurricane specialists were forecasting another above average hurricane season for 2006, but it didn't happen. NASA scientists have learned several reasons why.
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Indian space capsule successfully recovered
The Space capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-1) launched by India earlier this month successfully plunged back to Earth Monday. During its reentry, the capsule was protected from the intense heat by carbon phenolic ablative material and silica tiles on its outer surface.
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NEWSWIRE Links to news across the internet
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China confirms test of anti-satellite weapon -- (New York Times) The Chinese government confirmed today that it had conducted a successful test of a new anti-satellite weapon, but said it had no intention of participating in a "space race."
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Thomas Reiter reports on his half-year ISS mission
The space station, symbol of international cooperation, became a bit more international with European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter's long-duration mission. On Thursday, Reiter met the press for the first time since returning to Earth to report on the successful scientific results of his Astrolab Mission.
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NEWSWIRE Links to news across the internet
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U.S. tries to interpret China's silence over test -- (New York Times) Bush administration officials said that they had been unable to get even the most basic diplomatic response from China after their detection of a successful test to destroy a satellite 10 days ago, and that they were uncertain whether China's top leaders, including President Hu Jintao, were fully aware of the test or the reaction it would engender.
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Paperwork extends Dnepr's recovery from failure
A group of upcoming launches for a converted Russian ballistic missile are being postponed at least two months due to bogged down paperwork needed to clear the rocket for future launches from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome.
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Resupply vessel docks with International Space Station
A Russian resupply ship arrived at the International Space Station Friday night, bringing more than 5,000 pounds of equipment, fuel and oxygen. The 24th Progress launched to the station safely docked to the Pirs module at 9:59 p.m. EST.
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Additional coverage for subscribers:
 VIDEO:
PROGRESS 24P DOCKS TO THE SPACE STATION PLAY
VIDEO:
FREIGHTER MAKES AUTOMATED RENDEZVOUS PLAY
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Pluto-bound probe heads for encounter with Jupiter
Just a year after it was dispatched on the first mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, the New Horizons spacecraft is on the doorstep of the solar system's largest planet - about to swing past Jupiter and pick up even more speed on its voyage toward the unexplored regions of the planetary frontier.
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LAUNCH COVERAGE
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Additional coverage for subscribers:
VIDEO:
SCIENCE PREVIEW OF JUPITER FLYBY PLAY
MORE: NEW HORIZONS LAUNCH COVERAGE
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NEWSWIRE Links to news across the internet
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China tests anti-satellite weapon, unnerving U.S. -- (New York Times) China successfully carried out its first test of an anti-satellite weapon last week, signaling its resolve to play a major role in military space activities and bringing expressions of concern from Washington and other capitals, the Bush administration said Thursday.
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Dark energy may be vacuum, new research says
Researchers at the University of Copenhagen's Dark Cosmology Centre have brought us one step closer to understanding what the universe is made of. They have observed distant exploding stars, some of which emitted the light we now see more than half the age of the universe ago, and sharpened our knowledge of what it might be that is causing the mysterious acceleration of the expansion of the universe.
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Hypergiant star's massive outbursts mapped
Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the W.M. Keck Observatory, Kameula, Hawaii, astronomers have learned that the gaseous outflow from one of the brightest super-sized stars in the sky is more complex than originally thought.
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Space station in midst of supply ship shuffle
An International Space Station resupply vessel with more than 5,000 pounds of equipment, fuel and oxygen launched aboard a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome at 9:12 p.m. EST Wednesday night. Docking to the station is scheduled for Friday evening. A previous cargo ship was discarded from the outpost Tuesday night, undocking at 6:29 p.m. EST and burning up in the atmosphere three hours later.
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NEWSWIRE Links to news across the internet
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Chinese test anti-satellite weapon -- (Aviation Week) U. S. intelligence agencies believe China performed a successful anti-satellite (asat) weapons test at more than 500 mi. altitude Jan. 11 destroying an aging Chinese weather satellite target with a kinetic kill vehicle launched on board a ballistic missile.
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Hubble observes infant stars in nearby galaxy
This new image taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope depicts bright, blue, newly formed stars that are blowing a cavity in the center of a star-forming region in the Small Magellanic Cloud.
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Huygens' second anniversary of landing
Two years ago, planetary scientists across the world watched as Europe and the US did something amazing. The Huygens descent module drifted down through the hazy atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan, beaming its data back to Earth via the Cassini mothership. Today, Huygens' data are still continuing to surprise researchers.
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GeneSat shows small craft can deliver big science
A very small NASA satellite has proven that scientists can quickly design and launch a new class of inexpensive spacecraft -- and conduct significant science. The 11-pound GeneSat 1, carrying bacteria inside a miniature laboratory, was launched last month.
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Famous space pillars feel the heat of star's explosion
The three iconic space pillars photographed by Hubble in 1995 might have met their demise, according to new evidence from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. A new, striking image shows the intact dust towers next to a giant cloud of hot dust thought to have been scorched by the blast of a star that exploded.
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Gas giants form quickly
Gas-giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn form soon after their stars do, according to new research. Observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope show that gas giants either form within the first 10 million years of a sun-like star's life, or not at all.
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Diamonds from outer space
If indeed "a diamond is forever," the most primitive origins of Earth's so-called black diamonds were in deep, universal time, geologists have discovered. Black diamonds came from none other than interstellar space.
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Atlas 5 rocket set for its first U.S. military launch
After a quiet 2006 that saw just two launches and a whole lot of waiting for payloads, the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket program is preparing for a flurry of flights over the next several months.
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Expensive new U.S. spy satellite not working -- (Reuters) U.S. officials are unable to communicate with an expensive experimental U.S. spy satellite launched last year by the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), a defense official and another source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.
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Chandra finds light echo from Milky Way's black hole
Like cold case investigators, astronomers have used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to uncover evidence of a powerful outburst from the giant black hole at the Milky Way's center.
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Forecasting weather on distant planetary worlds
Earth's inhabitants are used to temperatures that vary, sometimes greatly, between day and night. New measurements for three planets outside our solar system indicate their temperatures remain fairly constant - and blazing hot - from day to night, even though it is likely one side of each planet always faces its sun and the other is in permanent darkness.
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OTHER HEADLINES Additional stories today
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SBIRS instructors hold keys to ground floor of new payload -- Future Space Based Infrared Systems crews will get in on the ground level of Air Force Space Command's most advanced payload when they begin training at the 460th Operations Group Detachment 1.
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Rethinking last century's closest, brightest supernova
Twenty years ago next month, the closest and brightest supernova in four centuries lit up the southern sky, wowing astronomers and the public alike. Ongoing observations of the exploded star, called supernova 1987A, provided important tests for theories of how stars die, but it also raised some new questions.
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Satellites in polar orbit after successful Indian launch
An Indian rocket today successfully orbited a cache of four satellites, including the Cartosat 2 Earth observation spacecraft and a recoverable capsule, in the first space launch of the year.
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NASA selects proposals for future Mars missions
On Monday, NASA selected for concept study development two proposals for future robotic missions to Mars. These missions would increase understanding of Mars' atmosphere, climate and potential habitability in greater detail than ever before.
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Triple interactions of black holes found common
New cosmological computer simulations produced by a team of astronomers show for the first time that supermassive black holes, which exist at the centers of nearly all galaxies, often come together during triple galaxy interactions.
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OTHER HEADLINES Additional stories today
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Movements of ancient Central Americans tracked by satellites -- Satellite imagery meshed with video-game technology is allowing University of Colorado at Boulder and NASA researchers to virtually "fly" along footpaths used by Central Americans 2,000 years ago on spiritual pilgrimages to ancestral cemeteries.
Boeing completes review for Space Based Space Surveillance -- The Boeing team that is building the Space Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) system has successfully passed the System Critical Design Review as the U.S. Air Force authorized the program to proceed toward a December 2008 launch.
Arianespace to launch ProtoStar I satellite -- New satellite operator ProtoStar has chosen Arianespace to launch ProtoStar I into geostationary transfer orbit by an Ariane 5 from the Guiana Space Center, Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, during the first half of 2008.
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Hubble maps cosmic web of 'clumpy' dark matter in 3-D
An international team of astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has created the first three-dimensional map of the large-scale distribution of dark matter in the universe.
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X-ray evidence for possible new supernova class
Evidence for a significant new class of supernova has been found with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton. These results strengthen the case for a population of stars that evolve rapidly and are destroyed by thermonuclear explosions. Such
"prompt" supernovas could be valuable tools for probing the early history of the cosmos.
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OTHER HEADLINES Additional stories today
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Ares I passes review milestone in its development -- NASA has completed the Ares I crew launch vehicle system requirements review -- the first such milestone for a U.S. human-rated launch vehicle system in more than 30 years. This review brings the agency one step closer to developing a new mode of space transportation for astronauts on missions to explore the moon, Mars and other destinations.
DigitalGlobe announces Ball building WorldView 2 -- DigitalGlobe, provider of the world's highest resolution commercial satellite imagery and geospatial information products, announced that Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation is building WorldView 2, which is scheduled to launch in late 2008.
Loral to build Nimiq 5 satellite for Telesat Canada -- Space Systems/Loral, a subsidiary of Loral Space & Communications and the world's leading provider of high-power commercial satellites, announced that it has been awarded a contract to manufacture Nimiq 5, a new high-power, direct broadcast satellite for Telesat Canada.
Loral to convert unlaunched ChinaSat-8 for ProtoStar -- Space Systems/Loral has been awarded a contract to deliver a high-power satellite to ProtoStar Ltd. with an expected launch in 2008. SS/L will immediately begin modifications on the former ChinaSat-8 satellite, a high-power geostationary satellite that has been in storage at SS/L's manufacturing facility in Palo Alto, Calif.
Parsons becomes Kennedy Space Center director -- NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida got new leadership Jan. 4 as William W. Parsons assumed the role as the facility's ninth director, succeeding James W. Kennedy, who is retiring from the agency.
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Black hole goes where no black hole has gone before
Astronomers have found a black hole where few thought they could ever exist, inside a globular star cluster. The finding has broad implications for the dynamics of stars clusters and also for the existence of a still-speculative new class of black holes called 'intermediate-mass' black holes.
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New GOES satellite completes on-orbit testing
Boeing has announced that GOES-13 (GOES-N), the first of three Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites that will support more accurate prediction and tracking of severe storms and other weather phenomena, has completed on-orbit testing and has been accepted by NASA.
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LAUNCH COVERAGE
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Delta 4-Heavy rocket takes its place atop launch pad
A massive Delta 4-Heavy rocket stood up on its Cape Canaveral launch pad Thursday morning to begin a three-month campaign of testing and preparations for blastoff carrying a critical military surveillance spacecraft.
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IMAGES: ROLLOUT TO THE PAD
IMAGES: ROCKET LIFTED UPRIGHT
IMAGES: PRESS VIEWING EVENT
IMAGES: NEW IMAGES FROM TODAY
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Saturn's moon Titan has liquid lakes, scientists say
Scientists report definitive evidence of the presence of lakes filled with liquid methane on Saturn's moon Titan in this week's journal Nature cover story. The evidence for large bodies of liquid on Titan today comes from the Cassini spacecraft.
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Forecast bright, sunny for weather squadron
In the fiery display of a rocket lifting off from its temporary land-based home, the day-to-day operations prior to that spectacular sight sometimes get lost in the mix.
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OTHER HEADLINES Additional stories today
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Boeing passes GPS III milestone -- Boeing has successfully completed a critical U.S. Air Force review of its Global Positioning System Space Segment III program and has been awarded a $50 million contract for additional system design activities.
New manager for Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter -- NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has a new project manager. Jim Graf, who led the Mars robotic mission from development through flight to the red planet, is moving on to new challenges.
Third AEHF satellite hardware delivered -- Lockheed Martin announced that it has delivered ahead of schedule the flight structure for the third space vehicle in the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) program to the company's Mississippi facility for integration with its propulsion subsystem. AEHF satellites will provide global, highly secure, protected, survivable communications for warfighters in all services within the Department of Defense.
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Two cosmic bursts upset tidy theories
Two brilliant flashes of light from nearby galaxies are puzzling astronomers and could indicate that gamma-ray bursts, which signal the birth of a black hole, are more diverse than once thought.
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Read our earlier news archive page.
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On October 3, 1962, Wally Schirra became the fifth American to rocket into space. This NASA film entitled "The Flight of Sigma 7" explains the 9-hour voyage that gained important knowledge in the Mercury program.
The Russian Progress M-57 cargo vessel undocks from the International Space Station on January 16 for re-entry into the atmosphere. It was the 22nd resupply ship sent to ISS.
The fourth servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope extended the craft's scientific potential with an advanced camera and performed a major overhaul on the orbiting observatory's power system with the installation of new solar arrays and an electrical heart. The crew of space shuttle Columbia's STS-109 mission tell the story of the March 2002 mission in this post-flight highlights film.
"Space Shuttle: A Remarkable Flying Machine" is a NASA movie that takes you inside the first voyage of the space shuttle program. Commander John Young and pilot Bob Crippen flew Columbia in April 1981, opening a new era in American space exploration.
Check out amazing footage from the video cameras mounted on the twin solid rocket boosters during space shuttle Discovery's nighttime launch.
Relive space shuttle Discovery's STS-116 mission to the International Space Station. We have nearly 200 movie clips from the December flight that installed a new truss segment and retracted a stubborn solar wing.
It was a beautiful sunrise blastoff for the Orbital Sciences Minotaur rocket from Wallops Flight Facility carrying the Air Force's TacSat 2 spacecraft and NASA's GeneSat 1.
The first United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket blasts off from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base carrying a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office.
Mars Global Surveyor has found bright new deposits in two gullies that suggest water may have spurted on the surface during the past few years. The images are presented by scientists in this news briefing presentation.