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Sunday:
January 30, 2000 | |
0100 GMT |
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Preparations continue for Monday's shuttle launch
NASA mission managers Saturday decided to continue with the countdown for Monday's launch of space shuttle Endeavour. However, they will meet again Sunday at 2 p.m. EST (1900 GMT) to further discuss the main engine turbopump problem seen during the last shuttle launch.
MISSION STATUS CENTER
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Saturday:
January 29, 2000 | |
0333 GMT |
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Waiting for a decision
NASA officials could decide today whether space shuttle Endeavour will be cleared for launch Monday. An engine problem experienced during the last shuttle launch may cause NASA to delay Endeavour. Space agency managers will meet at 1900 GMT (2 p.m. EST) today.
CREW ARRIVES
MISSION STATUS CENTER
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Spare Globalstar satellites moved to Cape launch pad
Preparations are in full swing for the first Boeing Delta rocket launch of 2000, a $110 million mission dedicated to completing Globalstar's space-based cellular telephone system.
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DAILY BRIEFING Other stories making news today
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Stardust has extra margin for comet encounter -- NASA says tank pressure following Stardust's recent Deep Space Maneuver was higher than expected, increasing the margin for the Comet Wild 2 encounter.
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NEWSWIRE Links to news across the internet
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Glenn's space vigor surprises NASA -- (AP/Yahoo!) John Glenn's 77-year-old body handled the rigors of space every bit as well as astronauts roughly half his age, NASA scientists said Friday in disclosing some of the lessons they learned from Glenn's historic mission.
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Friday:
January 28, 2000 | |
1336 GMT |
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Shuttle faces delay
Shuttle Endeavour's Monday launch is likely to be delayed because of a problem found on an engine used by shuttle Discovery last month that could have led to a catastrophic launch failure.
FULL STORY
CREW ARRIVES
MISSION STATUS CENTER
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University searching for whisper from Mars lander
Radio scientists at California's Stanford University are continuing to process data from communications attempts made this week to determine if they have picked up a signal coming from Mars Polar Lander.
FULL STORY
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NASA keeps alive option of special shuttle flight to ISS
The U.S. space agency said Thursday it will decide by mid-March whether an extra space shuttle flight will be made to the International Space Station this spring to service the outpost.
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DAILY BRIEFING Other stories making news today
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Air Force: OSP Minotaur scored a success -- The $23 million test flight of the new OSP Minotaur rocket was successful Wednesday night despite a lack of data from the booster, officials said Thursday.
Stardust adjusts trajectory -- NASA's Stardust spacecraft has successfully completed a three-part deep space maneuver designed to keep it on target for an Earth gravity assist in January 2001.
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NEWSWIRE Links to news across the internet
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Scientists report on Glenn mission -- (AP/Yahoo!) Science - not joyriding or publicity - was what prompted NASA to send John Glenn back to space, the agency steadfastly insisted during 1998's high-profile shuttle voyage. Results of the experiments took center stage Thursday.
Boeing gets bad vibes in rocket competition -- (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) The Boeing Co. is fixing vibration problems with the new rocket engine it's developing in a multibillion-dollar competition against Lockheed Martin Corp. for the U.S. space launch program, military and company officials said Wednesday.
The lunar eclipse: What you didn't see -- (BBC) Two astronomers have captured on film something of the beauty and majesty of last week's lunar eclipse.
Alabama jobs may go down with telescope -- (Huntsville Times) Thirty Huntsville jobs and the near-term future of astronomy could be at risk if NASA must destroy a problematic satellite telescope, says a scientist at Marshall Space Flight Center.
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Thursday:
January 27, 2000 | |
1706 GMT |
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Success of OSP Minotaur rocket not yet declared
U.S. Air Force officials are cautiously optimistic the $23 million test flight of the new OSP Minotaur rocket was successful Wednesday night. However, a lack of data from the booster means controllers could not immediately verify complete success. Get the latest news at our Mission Status Center.
MISSION STATUS CENTER
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Atlantis solid rocket booster checked for rain damage
Worried that rain might have damaged one of the solid boosters destined to launch space shuttle Atlantis this spring, NASA has disassembled part of the rocket for inspections.
FULL STORY
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Beagle 2 team assesses possible Mars landing sites
The Beagle 2 team has selected two potential landing sites on Mars for further study. The prospective areas are within the Chryse and Tritonis Lacus regions of the Red Planet.
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Endeavour astronauts travel to launch site
The six international astronauts that will fly aboard shuttle Endeavour's upcoming mission headed to Kennedy Space Center today to begin final pre-launch preparations. Follow the countdown and shuttle flight in our Mission Status Center.
MISSION STATUS CENTER
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DAILY BRIEFING Other stories making news today
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X-33 extended range system validated by NASA aircraft -- Using NASA's high-altitude ER-2 airplane equipped with X-33 avionics, engineers have completed operational tests of a diverse network of facilities and ground stations of the X-33 extended test range.
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NEWSWIRE Links to news across the internet
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Scientists hope whisper from space was Mars lander -- (Reuters/Yahoo!) Space scientists hoped on Wednesday that a "whisper" from space might mean that the Mars Lander spacecraft is still alive, even if it is crippled and will never perform its task of looking for water on the Red Planet.
Army, NASA may work together on simulations -- (L.A. Times) The U.S. Army and NASA are expected to announce today in Los Angeles that they will work together to develop simulation technologies that can be used to develop weapons systems to train soldiers and astronauts and to design space probes.
Students construct radio telescope -- (Collegian) A group of eight Penn State students are listening to the universe through a radio telescope that they built. The telescope is capable of picking up signals from Jupiter and the sun.
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Wednesday:
January 26, 2000 | |
1757 GMT |
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NASA gives another listen for Mars Polar Lander
Mission managers have decided to send another set of commands to Mars to investigate the possibility that a signal detected by a radio dish at California's Stanford University came from Mars Polar Lander.
FULL STORY
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U.S. Air Force to launch Minotaur rocket tonight
The maiden launch of the U.S. Air Force OSP Minotaur rocket is scheduled for tonight at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Follow the countdown and launch with our Mission Status Center.
MISSION STATUS CENTER
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Dasa ready to test reentry technology
On February 9, DaimlerChrysler Aerospace AG (DASA, Munich) is scheduled to launch the first test worldwide of a new reentry-technology IRDT (Inflatable Reentry and Descent Technology) on a Soyuz rocket.
FULL STORY
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DAILY BRIEFING Other stories making news today
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China launches communications satellite -- A Chinese Long March 3A rocket successfully launched a telecommunications satellite on Monday, news reports said.
Mir boosted to higher orbit -- Work has started to prepare the aging Russian space station Mir to be reopened, including an engine firing this week to raise the outpost's altitude.
Scientists get update on Rosetta comet mission -- Exactly three years to go before launch! That was the challenge facing scientists and managers from ESA and the U.S. as they recently gathered in The Netherlands for a progress report on the Rosetta mission to Comet Wirtanen.
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Tuesday:
January 25, 2000 | |
0258 GMT |
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Tile concern won't stall shuttle Endeavour launch
Space shuttle Endeavour has been cleared for launch following a last-minute check of heat resistant tiles installed on the craft. Liftoff is planned for 12:47 p.m. EST (1747 GMT) on January 31.
FULL STORY
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European Ariane 4 rocket launches U.S. TV satellite
Arianespace began the new millennium in perfect fashion Monday, placing PanAmSat's Galaxy 10R communications satellite into the proper orbit. The $250 million mission was the first of perhaps 15 Arianespace launches in 2000.
FULL STORY
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ARIANE INDEX
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Minotaur rocket launch finally reset
The U.S. Air Force has rescheduled the launch of the first OSP Minotaur rocket carrying the JAWSAT satellite platform for Wednesday night. New batteries have been found to replace spent ones in the rocket's Range Safety system. Follow the countdown and launch with our Mission Status Center.
MISSION STATUS CENTER
MISSION PREVIEW
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NEWSWIRE Links to news across the internet
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Glenn willing to return to space -- (Columbus Dispatch) Former NASA astronaut and U.S. senator John Glenn says he would like to return to space but doesn't expect to get the chance.
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Monday:
January 24, 2000 | |
2100 GMT |
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Endeavour to launch Jan. 31
NASA officials today put to rest an earlier concern with tiles on space shuttle Endeavour, clearing the ship for launch on January 31. We have a full report later.
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Proton's return to flight expected around Feb. 12
The venerable Russian Proton rocket will resume launches next month if an upcoming engine test firing goes according to plan, officials said Friday. First up will be the launch of Garuda-1, a cellular telephone satellite.
FULL STORY
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Engine recovered that downed Japan's H-2 rocket
The deep-sea search for wreckage of November's failed Japanese H-2 rocket launch on Sunday recovered the suspect engine that triggered the failure.
FULL STORY
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Ariane 4 to fly tonight
The first Arianespace launch of 2000 is scheduled for tonight from Kourou, French Guiana. The Ariane 42L rocket will haul PanAmSat's Galaxy 10R communications satellite into Earth orbit. Follow the countdown and launch with our Mission Status Center.
MISSION STATUS CENTER
ARIANE INDEX
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Hubble reopens eye on the Universe
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is back in business, as made dramatically evident in stunning new celestial pictures of remote galaxies and a colorful dying star released today. The images were taken January 10-13, 2000, as part of the activities to recommission the earth-orbiting telescope.
FULL STORY
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DAILY BRIEFING Other stories making news today
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New trucks will drive space payloads to launch pad -- NASA's long wait for a pair of new transporters for space shuttle payload canisters finally ended as they recently arrived by barge from Germany.
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NEWSWIRE Links to news across the internet
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NASA considering crashing Gamma Ray Observatory back to Earth -- (Florida Today) NASA may have to crash an orbiting telescope into an empty stretch of the Pacific Ocean this spring to avoid the risk of the 17-ton instrument falling randomly to Earth.
NASA, slightly humbled, dreams on -- (San Francisco Examiner) Bruised but unbroken by NASA's biggest humiliation in years - the back-to-back failure of two robotic expeditions to Mars - space scientists and engineers are planning even bolder trips, including drilling operations on the Red Planet and submarine voyages in an extraterrestrial ocean.
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