Sunday: October 22, 2000   1700 GMT Crosswinds keep Discovery in space until Monday A stiff crosswind at Kennedy Space Center's runway forced NASA officials to cancel plans to bring shuttle Discovery back to Earth Sunday afternoon. The shuttle remains in space in hopes for better weather on Monday.    FULL STORY Russian Proton rocket launches American satellite An International Launch Services commercial Proton rocket successfully delivered the American GE-6 telecommunications spacecraft into space today after a 6 1/2-hour flight. The satellite will serve North and South America.    MISSION STATUS CENTER New light shed on Milky Way's elusive center The first scientific observations from the Gemini North telescope have provided a dramatic glimpse into the elusive core of the Milky Way. Gemini has revealed clearly, for the first time a fast-moving star that is ploughing through a gas and dust cloud, near the center of our Galaxy.    FULL STORY DAILY BRIEFING  Other stories making news today Progress freighter docks to Russian space station Mir -- A Progress resupply ship successfully docked to the space station Mir on Friday night, setting the stage for a reboost maneuver to raise Mir's orbit from its current one. Saturday: October 21, 2000   0820 GMT Sea Launch Zenit 3SL rocket roars away from Pacific Sea Launch successfully launched the Thuraya 1 geomobile communications spacecraft today to provide telephone, e-mail, data relay and GPS location finding services across 99 countries in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent.    MISSION STATUS CENTER    VIDEO: SEA LAUNCH ROCKET LIFTS OFF    VIDEO: ANIMATION OF THURAYA 1 Life on Earth started with tiny atmospheric droplets? An international team of researchers has proposed a new theory that aerosol particles in the ancient atmosphere may have played a role in generating the chemical building blocks for life on Earth. Indeed, they say, the aerosols may have had many characteristics of a primitive form of "cell".    FULL STORY Proton rocket to boost American satellite today An International Launch Services commercial Proton rocket is poised for blastoff today to haul an American telecommunications satellite into space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.    MISSION STATUS CENTER Friday: October 20, 2000   1820 GMT Shuttle leaves station, crew talks to Spaceflight Now The Discovery astronauts undocked from the international space station today, wrapping up a successful mission to ready the complex for delivery of a huge set of solar arrays in December and its main laboratory module in January. Spaceflight Now's William Harwood interviewed the astronauts a short time later.    FULL STORY    VIDEO: WATCH THE INTERVIEW    TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW    MISSION STATUS CENTER Atlas rocket delivers U.S. government satellite aloft A $200 million satellite that will relay sensitive U.S. national security communications between the president, military and diplomats was rocketed into orbit Thursday night by a Lockheed Martin Atlas booster.    FULL STORY    MISSION STATUS CENTER    VIDEO: ATLAS ROCKET LIFTS OFF    VIDEO: BOOSTER PACKAGE SEPARATION DAILY BRIEFING  Other stories making news today Sea Launch scrubbed again -- The fifth flight of Sea Launch has been delayed an additional 24 hours due to an instrumentation problem. Liftoff of the Ukrainian-Russian Zenit 3SL rocket from Sea Launch's ocean-going platform is now expected early Saturday. Thursday: October 19, 2000   0221 GMT Sea Launch scrubbed The fifth flight of Sea Launch has been delayed 24 hours due to an instrumentation issue. Liftoff of the Ukrainian-Russian Zenit 3SL rocket from Sea Launch's ocean-going platform has been rescheduled for early Friday. The rocket will carry the Thuraya 1 satellite into orbit to provide mobile communications services across the Middle East.    MISSION STATUS CENTER Atlas rocket to fly U.S. military mission today Spaceflight Now is your source for unrivaled live coverage of today's launch of a Lockheed Martin Atlas 2A rocket carrying the Defense Satellite Communications Satellite B11 spacecraft. Liftoff from Cape Canaveral is planned for 7:36 p.m. EDT (2336 GMT). We will have a first-of-its-kind Webcast plus play-by-play reports in our status center.    MISSION STATUS CENTER    LINK TO WEBCAST PAGE    LAUNCH PREVIEW STORY Shuttle crew wraps up four grueling days of spacewalks Two high-flying astronauts zoomed about over the shuttle Discovery's cargo bay today, successfully testing emergency jetpacks designed to serve as a lifeline for any space station assembly workers who might someday slip free of his or her safety tether.    FULL STORY    MISSION STATUS CENTER    VIDEO: WISOFF TAKES TEST FLIGHT    VIDEO: LOPEZ-ALEGRIA TAKES HIS TURN    VIDEO: VIEW WITH STATION AND EARTH Gigantic gamma-ray burst breaks all distance records The afterglow of a gamma-ray burst in the southern constellation of Carina - more distant than any high-energy flare ever observed - has been detected by a network of spacecraft spread over the solar system, and has been traced back to its original explosion about 11 billion years ago.    FULL STORY Chandra finds massive stars are more like our sun NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has found evidence that massive stars may be much more like the Sun than previously thought. Astronomers determined that magnetic loop structures, similar to those on the Sun, may exist on the surface of so-called O-type stars, some of the most luminous stars in the Universe.    FULL STORY Wednesday: October 18, 2000   0602 GMT Spacewalkers to test fly jet backpacks above shuttle The Discovery astronauts are set for a fourth and final spacewalk today to complete initial outfitting of the international space station and to practice emergency rescue techniques that could mean the difference between life and death for future assembly crews.    SPACEWALK PREVIEW STORY    MISSION STATUS CENTER Shuttle booster bolts did not separate cleanly Two of eight bolts that held the space shuttle Discovery to its launch pad failed to separate cleanly during last week's blast off. Although slight damage was caused to the base of Discovery's right-hand solid rocket booster, the mishap did not endanger the astronauts and is not considered serious.    FULL STORY    LAUNCH PHOTO GALLERY Astronauts set the stage for more power aboard station Two spacewalkers installed a pair of transformer-like devices aboard the international space station Tuesday that will step down and regulate the voltage produced by a huge set of solar arrays scheduled for installation in December.    FULL STORY Sea Launch to loft massive communications craft The fifth flight of Sea Launch is scheduled for early Thursday when a Ukrainian-Russian Zenit 3SL rocket blasts off from an ocean-going platform in the Pacific Ocean. The rocket will carry the Thuraya 1 satellite into orbit to provide mobile communications services across the Middle East.    MISSION STATUS CENTER Atlas rocket to fly U.S. military mission Thursday A new U.S. national security communications satellite is set for launch Thursday as the military shuffles it orbiting fleet and retires an aging craft deployed from a classified space shuttle mission 15 years ago.    FULL STORY    MISSION STATUS CENTER Tuesday: October 17, 2000   0430 GMT Another spacewalk on tap today to outfit space station Discovery's astronauts plan to carry out the third spacewalk of their mission later today to ready the international space station for the attachment of a huge set of solar arrays in early December.    SPACEWALK PREVIEW STORY    MISSION STATUS CENTER Space station expands to include new docking port In a well-oiled team effort, the Discovery astronauts successfully attached a new $20 million shuttle docking port to the international space station Monday after getting off to a slightly rocky start.    FULL STORY    AN ASTRONAUT'S FRIENDLY REVENGE    SPACEWALK PREVIEW    ANIMATION OF DOCKING PORT ATTACHMENT Progress resupply ship launched to Mir station An unmanned cargo freighter blasted off Monday bound for the space station Mir to keep the outpost orbiting at a safe altitude until Russian authorities decided whether to send the 15-year complex in a controlled crash back to Earth.    FULL STORY Frosted southern plains of Mars seen from space probe The martian southern hemisphere was nearly two months into its spring season when this newly-released picture was taken by Mars Global Surveyor. The scene covers a vast, frost-coated plain south of the martian antarctic circle. The icy terrain in the image has an almost pastel-like character, owing to the mixture of reddish dust both on, in, and under the white frost.    FULL STORY Monday: October 16, 2000   0425 GMT Today's spacewalk will add new docking port to station With one complex spacewalk successfully completed, the Discovery astronauts are gearing up to carry out a second excursion Monday to attach a new $20 million shuttle docking port to the international space station's Unity module.    FULL SPACEWALK PREVIEW    MISSION STATUS CENTER    ANIMATION OF DOCKING PORT ATTACHMENT Choose from this menu:       Shuttle astronauts score first spacewalk success Astronauts Leroy Chiao and William McArthur pulled off a near perfect spacewalk Sunday, wiring up the international space station's new truss, deploying its main antenna and stowing tools for use by future assembly teams.    FULL STORY    EXCITED FIRST-TIME SPACEWALKER    VIDEO: ANTENNA DEPLOYED (282k) Most primitive solar system material studied Researchers from Canada, the United States and United Kingdom are examining what may be the 'crown jewel' of meteorite finds. The meteorites, found in northern British Columbia, will aid scientists in the reconstruction of the early solar system.    FULL STORY				Hubble poster The Hubble Space Telescope's majestic view of the Eskimo Nebula. This spectacular poster is available now from the Astronomy Now Store.    MORE Earlier news Oct. 9-15: Astronauts lend hand building space station; Dust disk found around a nearby star and planet; Hubble finds a tantalizing veil from exploded star; Pegasus rocket launches NASA science probe. Oct. 2-8: Lonely giant planets seen 1,000 light years away; 100th shuttle launch delayed; Data relay glitch threatens mission to Saturn moon; Future of Mir uncertain; Proton and Ariane 4 launches. Sept. 25-Oct. 1: First images from new observatories; Fountains of fire on the Sun; Top 10 images from commercial eye-in-the-sky; Agreement on new X-33 plan. Sept. 18-24: Hubble movies; Atlantis lands safely; Global weather satellite launched; Mystery of asteroid Eros; X-ray telescope to provide virtual journey to black hole. More news  See our weekly archive of space news. Contact us If you have a comment or question for Spaceflight Now, just send us an e-mail.