Spaceflight Now: Breaking News
Sunday: July 16, 2000  0423 GMT
Delta 2 slated for predawn liftoff this morning
Boeing and the U.S. Air Force are planning to launch a Delta 2 rocket with the Global Positioning System 2R-5 military navigation satellite just before sunrise today from Cape Canaveral.
   MISSION STATUS CENTER
Delta 2
Cluster launch rescheduled
The European Space Agency has announced another attempt to launch the first pair of Cluster II satellites will be made on Sunday. Liftoff was aborted Saturday when a last-minute problem was detected between the ground system and the Soyuz rocket.
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   FULL PREVIEW PACKAGEVideo
   LAUNCH ANIMATION (352k QuickTime file)
Soyuz
Astronomers using SOHO to find sungrazing comets
Both amateur and professional astronomers are using the joint European Space Agency/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory to find so-called "sungrazing" comets that pass very close to our Sun.
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Comet
DAILY BRIEFING  Other stories making news today
Airborne weather research may help odds of launching -- A weather study conducted at Kennedy Space Center last month could lead to improved lightning avoidance rules and fewer launch scrubs for the Space Shuttle and other launch vehicles on the Eastern and Western Ranges.
Saturday: July 15, 2000  1257 GMT
Cluster countdown aborted
A technical problem caused the automatic countdown sequencer computer to halt today's launch of a Starsem Soyuz rocket, delaying by at least 24 hours the mission to place the first pair of Cluster II satellites into orbit to study the space weather environment.
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   FULL PREVIEW PACKAGEVideo
   LAUNCH ANIMATION (352k QuickTime file)
Cluster
Cosmos rocket lofts science and technology satellites
A Cosmos-3M rocket successfully launched three small satellites today designed to test new technologies and monitor our home planet. Launch from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia occurred on time at 1200 GMT.
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CHAMP
Twin-telescope sky survey gives you the stars
Your home computer can become a portal to a wonderland of stars, thanks to a massive release of images from an infrared sky survey sponsored by NASA and the National Science Foundation.
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Tarantula Nebula
Boeing Delta 2 rocket to launch Air Force craft
A $44 million military navigation satellite is awaiting its predawn ride into space Sunday atop a Boeing Delta 2 rocket to keep the U.S. Air Force's Global Positioning System constellation healthy.
   MISSION STATUS CENTER
GPS 2R-5
DAILY BRIEFING  Other stories making news today
Zvezda boosts its orbit to reach space station -- The Zvezda service module on Friday moved ever closer to next week's rendezvous and docking with the international space station by conducting a pair of engine firings to raise its orbit.
Friday: July 14, 2000  1934 GMT
NASA cleans contamination inside astronaut spacesuits
Backup oxygen supplies in the pressure suits worn by shuttle spacewalkers are being inspected and cleaned to remove any traces of potentially flammable contamination found in all of NASA's spacesuits.
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Spacewalk
EchoStar 6 TV satellite delivered to orbit by Atlas
Lockheed Martin's commercial Atlas rocket fleet kept its long-running success streak unblemished this morning by lofting into space the most powerful direct broadcasting satellite.
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Atlas launches
Cluster mission about to rise from the ashes
The first pair of Cluster II satellites is poised to blastoff on Saturday. Two more are scheduled to follow in early August, completing a space quartet that should revolutionise our understanding of the interaction between the Sun and Earth.
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Crater
Sea Launch vessels depart to equator for July 28 liftoff
In preparation for its return-to-flight, Sea Launch is dispatching the Odyssey Launch Platform and Commander ship for the equator for a mission to place the PanAmSat-9 communications satellite into space.
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PAS-9
DAILY BRIEFING  Other stories making news today
Arianespace grounds Ariane 5 rocket -- The next flight of Europe's commercial Ariane 5 rocket, originally set for July 25, has been delayed until September due to concerns with the launcher's upper stage attitude control system.
Thursday: July 13, 2000  0501 GMT
Hubble watches star tear apart its neighborhood
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has snapped a view of a stellar demolition zone in our Milky Way Galaxy: a massive star, nearing the end of its life, tearing apart the shell of surrounding material it blew off 250,000 years ago with its strong stellar wind.
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Hubble
Atlas rocket to launch TV relay satellite for EchoStar
Loaded with a powerful direct-to-home TV broadcasting satellite, a Lockheed Martin Atlas 2AS rocket is set to make a middle-of-the night blastoff Friday morning from Cape Canaveral.
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EchoStar 6
Zvezda could dock early; antenna issue examined
Flight controllers report Zvezda's first hours in space have gone very smoothly. In fact, officials are considering moving up docking by three days. The only issue of note is the possibility one of two TORU docking antennas might not be locked in its deployed position.
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Zvezda
Russian designer asks NASA for more support
NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin congratulated his Russian colleagues for successfully launching Zvezda today. The module's chief designer, in turn, unabashedly asked for more tangible support from the United States -- presumably hard cash -- in the years ahead.
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   THE ROCKY ROAD TO LAUNCH
Zvezda docks
DAILY BRIEFING  Other stories making news today
Extraterrestrial 'anomaly' found in Earth's rocks -- Chemists at the University of California, San Diego have discovered an isotope anomaly previously thought unique to meteorites and other extraterrestrial rocks in sulfate minerals on Earth.
Wednesday: July 12, 2000  0700 GMT
Zvezda module finally launched to space station
Running two years behind schedule, a heavy lift Proton rocket finally boosted the Russian Zvezda command module into orbit early today, opening a floodgate of stalled U.S.-Russian assembly missions.
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   MISSION STATUS CENTER (Continuous updates)
   VIDEO: PROTON ROCKET LIFTS OFFVideo
   THE ROCKY ROAD TO LAUNCH
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Launch
Zvezda to dock with space station in two weeks
Russian flight controllers will spend two full weeks checking out and activating Zvezda's systems and maneuvering the spacecraft into the proper position for docking.
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   STAKES SKY HIGH FOR ZVEZDA
Zvezda docks
Chandra telescope sees flare from brown dwarf
NASA's latest space observatory, designed to see the most violent and stunning cosmic phenomena, captured something unexpected. The Chandra X-ray Observatory, orbiting in space about one-third of the way to the moon, saw the first-ever flare from what's known as a brown dwarf, or failed star.
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Flare
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Air Force funds first EELV launch on Boeing Delta 4 -- The U.S. Air Force has authorized production of the first EELV/Delta 4 launch vehicle for the Defense Satellite Communications System (DSCS). The launch will occur in May 2002.

ICO-Teledesic Global gets boost from new investment -- ICO-Teledesic Global Limited, a holding company that controls the satellite assets of telecommunications pioneer Craig McCaw, Tuesday announced investment agreements totaling more than $1 billion from a number of top international investors, including Eagle River, Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, Inc. and Bill Gates.
NEWSWIRE  Links to news across the internet
Final Flashline station paradrop unsuccessful -- (Mars Society) The last of a series of five paradrops delivering construction materials and equipment for the Mars Society's Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station failed to place its cargo safely on Devon Island this weekend. An unknown mechanical failure during the fifth drop resulted in heavy damage to the station's floor panels and accompanying construction equipment.

High-tech research chilled by spy fears -- (Boston Globe) Mounting fears of spies stealing the nation's high-technology secrets are beginning to take a toll at prominent research universities such as MIT, where foreign students and researchers are often barred from helping to build software, satellites, and other sophisticated items.

Tuesday: July 11, 2000  0833 GMT
Galileo makes rare find: Impact crater on Europa
A newly discovered, city-sized impact crater viewed by NASA's Galileo spacecraft may shed new light on the nature of the enigmatic icy surface of Jupiter's moon Europa.
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Crater
Stakes sky high for this week's Zvezda launch
The stakes are literally sky high: Nothing less than the future of the international space station. That's what many believe is riding on Wednesday's launch of a long-delayed Russian command module called Zvezda.
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Zvezda docks
Web site to provide live views from Zvezda module
Through a landmark agreement announced Monday, people worldwide will be able to watch free on the Internet as 16 nations build and occupy the International Space Station in Earth orbit. Still and video images will be broadcast from the Russian Zvezda service module.
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Zvezda
DAILY BRIEFING  Other stories making news today
Earth strains to hear Pioneer 10 some 7 billion miles away -- After 28 years in space, Pioneer 10 continues to function as it cruises through interstellar space but Earth is having an increasingly difficult time hearing the venerable craft.

MirCorp seeks sponsorship, advertising for space station -- Russia's Mir space station has been opened for sponsorship and advertising opportunities. Commercial possibilities range from the flight of products and material onboard the manned orbital facility to the corporate sponsorship of a Mir habitation module.
Monday: July 10, 2000  0500 GMT
New and old comet probes bridge generation gap
Exactly 15 years ago this month the European Space Agency's Giotto spacecraft began an epic adventure to rendezvous with Halley's Comet. Without Giotto's pioneering flybys, ESA's upcoming Rosetta mission to orbit Comet Wirtanen would not have been possible.
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Rosetta
DAILY BRIEFING  Other stories making news today
SSTL wins NASA contract to study Internet from space -- Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd has won a $60,000 study contract to investigate the potential for the SSTL minisat-400 spacecraft to operate with communications service providers using Internet Protocols. Such a system would allow satellite operators to download data files from spacecraft directly to their own PC.

Boeing, Honeywell team up for space station work -- The Boeing Company and Honeywell entered into an agreement for ongoing and future International Space Station (ISS) work relating to avionics, systems, and software.
NEWSWIRE  Links to news across the internet
Goldin years brought focus to NASA -- (Orlando Sentinel) As a November presidential election grows nearer that could signal the end of Dan Goldin's tenure, he's perhaps the most influential NASA administrator ever. The space agency has been reborn with a post-Cold War mission and new lease on life. Scientific achievement has taken off.

Canada in space: the next generation -- (The Ottawa Citizen) A second generation of the Garneau family is heading into the space business. Just how far into space, Simone Garneau isn't yet sure. Will Marc Garneau's only daughter become an astronaut?




Earlier news
July 3-9: A cosmic searchlight beckons to Hubble's eyes; Proton rocket cleared for Zvezda; Scientists debate where to crash Galileo space probe; Deep Space 1 probe gets new lease on life.

June 26-July 2: Mars could harbor much more water than thought; Digital radio satellite launched; Atlas lofts TDRS-H for NASA; Hubble uncovers details in gamma-ray burst galaxy; Cosmos-3M launch.

June 19-25: NASA finds evidence of liquid water on Mars; Salty meteorite says Mars had Earth-like oceans; First 'space tourist' goes public; ESO finds 8 new exoplanets; Proton launch.

June 12-18: First space tourist announced; Delta 3 rocket to make demonstration flight; Russian cosmonauts depart Mir; Sugar discovered in space.

More news  See our weekly archive of space news.


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