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Sunday:
June 4, 2000 | |
0714 GMT |
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Great observatory makes kamikaze plunge to Earth
NASA's Compton Gamma Ray Observatory met a fiery end to its highly successful 9-year mission this morning, plummeting into the atmosphere to burn up. Read live reports on the reentry in our Mission Status Center.
 MISSION STATUS CENTER
DEORBIT PREVIEW STORY
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Scientists: Defrosting Mars dunes look like bushes
"They look like bushes!" That's what almost everyone says when they see the dark features found in Mars Global Surveyor pictures taken of sand dunes in the polar regions as they are beginning to defrost after a long, cold winter.
FULL STORY
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Galileo sees lava blown from crack in Io's surface
A new image from NASA's Galileo spacecraft shows one of many intriguing mountains on Jupiter's volcanic moon Io, including the shape of the mountain and the small fans of debris piled against the base of its tall, steep cliffs.
FULL STORY
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Saturday:
June 3, 2000 | |
0648 GMT |
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Doomed NASA telescope spends last day in space
On the brink of destruction, NASA's Compton Gamma Ray Observatory is circling Earth for the final times today as controllers prepare to send the crippled craft crashing into Pacific Ocean early Sunday. Read the latest news about the reentry in our Mission Status Center.
MISSION STATUS CENTER
DEORBIT PREVIEW STORY
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Sun and Earth link creates auroras, space weather
Space physicists have made the first direct observations of the process that causes auroras and magnetic disturbances -- or space weather -- around the Earth.
FULL STORY
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Air-breathing rocket engine passes testing milestone
NASA and Rocketdyne engineers developing air-breathing rocket propulsion technology achieved an important milestone in May.
FULL STORY
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Friday:
June 2, 2000 | |
0408 GMT |
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Hubble peers into the heart of the Crab Nebula
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has zoomed in on the center of the Crab Nebula to reveal its structure with unprecedented detail. Located about 6,500 light-years from Earth, the nebula is the remnant of an exploded star.
FULL STORY
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Sunday's reentry plan for space telescope tweaked
Controllers of the doomed Compton Gamma Ray Observatory have altered the timing of the final two descent burns, adjusting the predicted area where debris from the craft will fall in the Pacific. Read the latest news about the reentry in our Mission Status Center.
MISSION STATUS CENTER
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DAILY BRIEFING Other stories making news today
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Repaired space station awaits resumption of assembly -- A rejuvenated International Space Station circles the Earth in excellent shape from a higher orbit and is ready for the arrival of its next pressurized component -- the Zvezda service module.
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Thursday:
June 1, 2000 | |
0533 GMT |
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Jupiter's moon Io covered with volcanoes galore
Abundant volcanoes, including some that turn on and off, and puzzling surface textures are some of the new findings from NASA's Galileo spacecraft during the closest flyby ever of Jupiter's moon Io.
FULL STORY
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Trouble assembling Delta 2 rocket postpones launch
Boeing has delayed the next launch of its Delta 2 rocket while engineers struggle with a yet-unexplained problem fitting together two stages of the vehicle on the launch pad.
FULL STORY
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IMAGE gives first view of electrified gas around Earth
Initial pictures from NASA's new IMAGE spacecraft are revealing for the first time the global ebb and flow of hot, electrified plasma around the Earth in response to the solar wind.
FULL STORY
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DAILY BRIEFING Other stories making news today
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Space observatory moves closer to Sunday's reentry -- NASA completed the second in a series of four descent burns on Wednesday to push the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory towards a fiery return to Earth.
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Wednesday:
May 31, 2000 | |
0404 GMT |
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Condemned telescope begins trek to reentry
NASA's Compton Gamma Ray Observatory took the first of four steps towards destruction on Tuesday by firing its thrusters to move into a lower orbit. Read the latest news about the reentry in our Mission Status Center.
MISSION STATUS CENTER
DEORBIT PREVIEW STORY
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Hot bubbles in swirling disk at Milky Way's heart
Sophisticated computer analysis of 20 years of data from the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope has revealed evidence of hot "bubbles" in the dense, rapidly-spinning disk of material being sucked into a massive black hole
26,000 light-years distant at the heart of our own Milky Way Galaxy.
FULL STORY
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NEAR Shoemaker links Eros to early solar system
New data from NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission indicate asteroid Eros may be a primordial relic left over from the solar system's formation.
FULL STORY
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Global Surveyor sees odd feature on Martian surface
An image from the Mars Global Surveyor in orbit around the Red Planet shows what, at first glance, might look like a "hot crossed bun" on the martian northern plains.
FULL STORY
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Tuesday:
May 30, 2000 | |
0600 GMT |
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Astronomers open cosmic window to Universe beyond
An Australian-led team of astronomers has used a radio telescope to make the first picture of the sky in which the Milky Way -- the stars and dust of our own galaxy -- no longer blocks our view of the Universe beyond.
FULL STORY
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ISO space observatory takes Pluto's temperature
A team of scientists using ESA's infrared space telescope ISO has measured variations in the temperature of the Pluto-Charon system, which prove that the temperature of Pluto's surface is not uniform.
FULL STORY
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DAILY BRIEFING Other stories making news today
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Galileo continues probing Jovian magnetosphere -- The Fields and Particles instruments aboard NASA's Galileo spacecraft continue their extended survey of the Jovian magnetosphere this week as the spacecraft moves outward from the heart of the Jupiter system.
Ariane 5 to loft world's largest telecom satellite -- Telesat has selected Arianespace to launch Anik F2, the largest telecommunications satellite ever sent into space. The two companies signed the launch contract in Venice, Italy, with the launch targeted for late 2002.
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Monday:
May 29, 2000 | |
0817 GMT |
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Welcome home, Atlantis!
Commander Jim Halsell guided space shuttle Atlantis smooth nighttime landing this morning at the Kennedy Space Center to conclude a successful repair mission to the International Space Station.
FULL STORY
MISSION STATUS CENTER
VIDEO: ATLANTIS LANDS IN FLORIDA
LANDING GROUND TRACKS
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Mysterious Martian ridges
One of the most puzzling findings of Mars Global Surveyor has been the discovery of many sharp, parallel ridges and grooves on the planet's surfaces that first look like dunes, but turn out to be something else.
FULL STORY
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DAILY BRIEFING Other stories making news today
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Countdown begins for CGRO's deorbiting -- The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory reentry team successfully completed an engineering test firing of the craft's thrusters on Sunday. The thrusters will be used during deorbit maneuvers later in the week to push the bus-sized telescope back into Earth's atmosphere.
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