Sunday: November 19, 2000   0447 GMT A star disappears Monday... but only for a few seconds Stars twinkle, but usually not like this! On Monday morning, asteroid 752 Sulamitis will be seen, from some places on Earth, passing in front of a star in the constellation Gemini, making the star fade away for up to 10 seconds.    FULL STORY Paper chase ends, Delta 2 rocket cleared for launch After a two-day delay so engineers could sort through paperwork, a Boeing Delta 2 rocket is now back on track for blastoff Tuesday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California carrying a trio of research satellites.    MISSION STATUS CENTER Air Force weather duo guides space shuttle home Across the nation, people heard and read news reports earlier this month that space shuttle Discovery was on its cross-country trek from California to its home in Florida. What Americans didn't know was the Air Force involvement in such a critical mission.    FULL STORY DAILY BRIEFING  Other stories making news today Path clear for commissioning Europe's Cluster 2 satellites -- Events have moved quickly over the past week as the European Space Agency's Cluster mission passed a series of significant landmarks on the way to commissioning the four spacecraft for their solar wind research. Saturday: November 18, 2000   0605 GMT Cosmonaut docks cargo ship in dramatic fashion The automatic guidance system of an unmanned Progress supply ship failed during final approach late Friday, forcing cosmonaut Yuri Gidzenko to take over manual control for a dramatic, remotely piloted docking with the international space station.    FULL STORY    MISSION STATUS CENTER    VIDEO: PROGRESS WILDLY GYRATES Russian space officials lay out plans for Mir's burial Russia is continuing to train two teams of orbital undertakers to prepare the decommissioned Mir outpost for incineration and burial at sea in case automated controls to fly the station into the atmosphere fail.    FULL STORY Delta rocket delayed another day Boeing and NASA officials on Friday postponed the upcoming launch of a Delta 2 rocket for the third time in as many days. Engineers have yet to complete a review of testing records for the rocket's guidance computer, causing the launch to be pushed back to Tuesday.    MISSION STATUS CENTER Leonids 2000: will it storm? Last year's Leonid meteor shower produced spectacular displays. Some observers reported meteors raining down at the rate of at least one every second, and often higher. Astronomy Now's Neil Bone looks at the forecast for this year's shower, predicted to peak tonight.    FULL STORY DAILY BRIEFING  Other stories making news today NASA announces the end of ultraviolet telescope mission -- The mission of the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) satellite has run its course, NASA said Friday. The final shutdown sequence will be conducted next month. Friday: November 17, 2000   0352 GMT Station crew awaits arrival of cargo ship tonight NASA managers are holding open the option of delaying launch of the next space station assembly flight if the lab's on-board crew is unable to completely unload a Progress supply ship in time. The craft is due to dock at the station Friday night.    FULL STORY    MISSION STATUS CENTER Delta 2 rocket launch delayed to Monday Boeing and NASA have decided to again postpone the launch of a Delta 2 rocket with the Earth Observing-1, SAC-C and Munin satellites. The latest concern involves the rocket's guidance computer. Liftoff is now set for no earlier than Monday from California.    MISSION STATUS CENTER Space experiments help find treatment for diseases How on Earth can a future space shuttle mission to the international space station lead to a better treatment for diseases? A chemistry professor and colleagues working at NASA have discovered that gravity may be the key.    FULL STORY Thursday: November 16, 2000   1400 GMT Russia decides to dump Mir The Russian government has decided to deorbit the Mir space station, according to reports from Moscow. "The government has agreed that [Mir] be taken out of orbit and brought down into the Pacific Ocean in a pre-determined area off Australia between February 26 and 28," Russian space agency chief Yuri Koptev told reporters.    FULL STORY Iridium system saved A U.S. bankruptcy court Wednesday approved the bid of a company called Iridium Satellite LLC to purchase the Iridium mobile telephone satellite system. The company said it plans to re-launch affordable satellite communications services within 60 days.    FULL STORY Ariane 5 rocket blasts off from European spaceport A powerful European Ariane 5 rocket was successfully launched from Kourou in French Guiana at 8:07 p.m. EST (0107 GMT) carrying PanAmSat's PAS-1R international communications satellite and three secondary payloads. Read about the mission in our status center.    MISSION STATUS CENTER Russians launch supply ship to space station An unmanned Progress spacecraft loaded with equipment and supplies for the international space station's three-man crew lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Wednesday night at 0132 GMT.    FULL STORY    PROGRESS TIMELINE TO DOCKING    MISSION STATUS CENTER Choose from this menu:       Next Delta 2 rocket launch postponed by 24 hours Officials have decided to delay Saturday's planned launch of a Boeing Delta 2 rocket from California after one of the satellite payloads was contaminated. Efforts were underway Wednesday to clean the craft and the rocket's nose cone.    MISSION STATUS CENTER Wednesday: November 15, 2000   0333 GMT Ariane 5 launch scrubbed Launch of the European Ariane 507 rocket was postponed Tuesday due to a ground equipment problem. Liftoff is now set for Wednesday evening to deliver four separate satellite cargos into orbit.    MISSION STATUS CENTER Powerful wind found blowing from microquasar NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has detected, for the first time in X-rays, a stellar signature of a powerful wind produced by an object in space. The discovery reveals a 4.5-million-mile-per-hour wind coming from a highly compact pair of stars in our galaxy.    FULL STORY Contamination check ordered for Delta 2 rocket Three research satellites are packed atop a Boeing Delta 2 rocket for launch on Saturday from California, but the booster's nose cone is undergoing last-minute contamination inspections before officials will clear the way to blastoff.    MISSION STATUS CENTER Russians to launch supplies to space station tonight A Progress cargo freighter is scheduled for launch tonight bound for the international space station. The Russian Soyuz rocket is slated for liftoff at 0132 GMT (8:32 p.m. EST) from Baikonur Cosmodrome. Check back later today for a complete launch preview.    MISSION STATUS CENTER Choose from this menu:       DAILY BRIEFING  Other stories making news today Air Force space surveillance complex upgraded -- Improvements to U.S. Air Force surveillance telescopes located in Science City, Hawaii, near the Haleakala Crater, will improve the complex's ability to keep track of objects orbiting Earth. Tuesday: November 14, 2000   0305 GMT Hot stars of Orion cluster uncovered in the making In resolving the hot core of one of the Earth's closest and most massive star-forming regions, the Chandra X-ray Observatory showed that almost all the young stars' temperatures are more extreme than expected.    FULL STORY Ariane 5 rolled to launch pad for liftoff tonight A European Ariane 5 rocket is set to soar tonight from its South American launch site in the jungles of French Guiana. The Arianespace Ariane 507 launcher will be shot into space on a truly international mission carrying four separate satellite cargos.    MISSION STATUS CENTER DAILY BRIEFING  Other stories making news today NASA's Galileo probing Jupiter's magnetosphere -- This week Galileo completes the third week of a 100-day continuous survey of the Jovian magnetosphere. The survey is performed by Galileo's suite of Fields and Particles instruments as part of a dual-spacecraft observation campaign with the Cassini spacecraft. Cassini will pass by Jupiter later this year on its way to arrival at Saturn in 2004. Monday: November 13, 2000   0206 GMT X-ray snapshots capture first cries of baby stars Stars, like babies, make quite a fuss in their first days after birth. Astronomers using the Chandra X-ray Observatory have discovered that protostars -- stars in their youngest stage -- are marked by powerful X rays from plasma ten times hotter and 100 to 100,000 times brighter than the flares on our Sun.    FULL STORY Newfound galaxy clusters making scientists rethink Astronomers behind the Massive Cluster Survey have uncovered 101 giant galaxy clusters, many of them so distant and thus forming so early in the history of time that they challenge our current understanding of how quickly the Universe evolved into its current hierarchical structure of stars, galaxies and clusters.    FULL STORY DAILY BRIEFING  Other stories making news today Air Force selects contractor for GPS 3 study -- The Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center has awarded contracts to Boeing and Lockheed Martin to conduct architecture studies for the Global Positioning System 3 Program. The future GPS generation is planned to meet evolving military and civil requirements for the space-based navigation and timing system for the next 30 years.				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 Nov. 6-12: Solar storm warning for ISS; Delta 2 launches GPS 2R-6; Solar system family portrait; Cassini watches Jupiter; Chandra telescope catches a galactic football Oct. 30-Nov. 5: First residents arrive at international space station; Sulfur-rich 'snow' found on Io; Research could pave way for discovery of life on Mars; Hubble gives a bird's eye view of galaxy collision. Oct. 23-29: Discovery lands in California; Four new moons found orbiting Saturn; Strange shapes on the sizzling world of volcanic Io; Revealing Neptune's icy atmosphere, Uranus' rings; 100th Ariane 4 launch. Oct. 16-22: Space station construction mission successful; Gigantic gamma-ray burst breaks all distance records; New light shed on Milky Way's elusive center; Atlas, Proton and Sea Launch rocket missions. 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.