Sunday: December 10, 2000   0156 GMT Mission accomplished, shuttle departs station With hugs and handshakes, the Endeavour astronauts bid farewell to the crew of space station Alpha Saturday, closed hatches between the two spacecraft and undocked to wind up an edge-of-the-seat mission to install a huge set of solar arrays.    FULL STORY    MISSION STATUS CENTER    PHOTO: SPECTACULAR VIEW OF STATION    VIDEO: SHUTTLE CREW DEPARTS    VIDEO: UNDOCKING ANIMATION Choose from this menu:       Four additional moons discovered orbiting Saturn An unprecedented surge in planetary moon discoveries continued this week as astronomers reported the discovery of four more moons orbiting Saturn, bringing the total number of moons found around the planet since October to ten.    FULL STORY DAILY BRIEFING  Other stories making news today Delayed Ariane 4 rocket launch reset for Monday -- After a postponement to double-check the rocket's nose cone, Arianespace has rescheduled the flight of Ariane 4 launcher carrying the Eurasiasat 1 communications satellite for Monday evening from South America. Saturday: December 9, 2000   0537 GMT Alpha crew says station workload improving Learning from experience, U.S. and Russian flight planners are slowly zeroing in on more realistic schedules for the international space station's hard-working crew. But the commander says there's still plenty of room for improvement and in the meantime, patience is the watchword.    FULL STORY Choose from this menu:       Engineers assess shuttle booster problem During launch of shuttle Endeavour November 30, one of two explosive cartridges used to separate a strut holding the base of the orbiter's left-side solid-fuel booster to the ship's external fuel tank failed to fire.    FULL STORY Astronomers find new evidence for magnetars Astronomers announced this week evidence that may support the existence of magnetars, a bizarre class of neutron stars with incredibly intense magnetic fields.    FULL STORY Friday: December 8, 2000   1500 GMT Endeavour crew boards the international space station Following full navy tradition the space shuttle Endeavour astronauts boarded the international space station at 1436 GMT (9:36 a.m. EST). They are the first visitors to the complex since the arrival of the station's first crew just over a month ago.    MISSION STATUS CENTER    VIDEO: CREW BOARD STATION Spacewalkers fix space station's slack solar array After four days of around-the-clock analysis, testing and planning on Earth, two astronauts working nine stories above the shuttle Endeavour have successfully repaired a loose solar array blanket on the international space station's $600 million power system.    FULL STORY    MISSION STATUS CENTER    VIDEO: POWER TOWER "TOPPED OUT"    AUDIO: GOLDIN SPEAKS WITH CREWS    AUDIO: REASON FOR REPAIR    VIDEO: CREW LEARN OF TRICKY TASK    SPACEWALK STATISTICS Monster thunderstorm may be brewing on Jupiter New views of Jupiter's north equatorial belt from NASA's Cassini space probe has revealed a storm penetrating upward through several layers of the planet's atmosphere. This may in fact be a 'monster' thunderstorm, going all the way into the stratosphere, as do some summer thunderstorms in the midwestern U.S.    FULL STORY Galileo celebrates five years orbiting Jupiter NASA's Galileo spacecraft completed its fifth year of orbiting Jupiter yesterday, continuing to send home new information after enduring more than twice the time in orbit and three times the radiation dosage that it was originally planned to withstand.    FULL STORY Thursday: December 7, 2000   0209 GMT NASA approves tricky station solar wing repair NASA managers Wednesday formally approved a bold plan for two spacewalking astronauts, working nine stories above the shuttle Endeavour, to tighten up a loose solar array blanket, one of four on the international space station's new $600 million solar power tower.    FULL STORY    MISSION STATUS CENTER Ghostly reflections in the Pleiades seen by Hubble NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has caught the eerie, wispy tendrils of a dark interstellar cloud being destroyed by the passage of one of the brightest stars in the Pleiades star cluster. Like a flashlight beam shining off the wall of a cave, the star is reflecting light off the surface of pitch black clouds of cold gas laced with dust. These are called reflection nebulae.    FULL STORY U.S. military buys airtime on Iridium satellite system The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded Iridium Satellite LLC a $72 million contract for 24 months of satellite communications services. This contract would provide unlimited airtime for 20,000 government users over the Iridium satellite network.    FULL STORY Europe's XMM-Newton X-ray space telescope turns 1 The European Space Agency has presented the first examples of the scientific results being provided by XMM-Newton. As reporters were gathered at an anniversary press conference at ESA headquarters in Paris yesterday, practically a year after launch from Kourou, the X-ray observatory was accomplishing its 182nd revolution.    FULL STORY DAILY BRIEFING  Other stories making news today Friday's Ariane 4 rocket launch put on hold -- Arianespace has opted to delay its planned Friday launch of an Ariane 44P rocket with a Turkish communications satellite to allow "complementary checks" on the booster. Wednesday: December 6, 2000   0733 GMT Atlas rocket launches classified cargo A Lockheed Martin Atlas 2AS rocket successfully launched a secret satellite for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office on Tuesday evening. The craft is believed to be a relay satellite used to send data from spy satellites back to Earth.    MISSION STATUS CENTER    VIDEO: ATLAS ROCKET LIFTS OFF Shuttle spacewalkers set sights on array repair In a virtually flawless spacewalk, two astronauts wired the newly installed P6 solar power tower into the international space station's electrical system Tuesday. Troubleshooters on the ground, meanwhile, perfected plans for having the spacewalkers tighten up a loose solar array blanket during a third and final spacewalk Thursday.    FULL STORY    MISSION STATUS CENTER    SPACEWALK STATISTICS Choose from this menu:       Cassini captures amazing view of Jupiter & Ganymede Jupiter casts a baleful eye on wayward Ganymede in this new image from the Cassini spacecraft currently cruising past our solar system's largest planet on its way to Saturn. The color image shows Jupiter's Great Red Spot and even surface details on the Jovian moon Ganymede.    FULL STORY Commercial Earth-imaging satellite launched Monday ImageSat International announced today the successful launch of the EROS A1 satellite by a Start-1 launcher from the Russian Cosmodrome in Svobodni, Siberia. The craft is the world's lightest commercial high resolution imaging satellite.    FULL STORY Tuesday: December 5, 2000   0521 GMT Second space station solar array wing deployed The astronauts aboard space shuttle Endeavour successfully extended the port solar array wing from the international space station today, completing a two-day effort to spread the new power-generating arrays for the orbiting complex. The starboard wing remains slack, however.    MISSION STATUS CENTER    EARLIER STORY Choose from this menu:       NASA engineers evaluate solar array problems Two spacewalking astronauts bolted a $600 million solar power tower to the international space station Sunday and one of two huge solar wings was successfully unfurled after several false starts. But deployment of a second wing was put on hold after engineers determined the two solar cell blankets making up the first wing were not as taut as expected after the wing was fully extended.    FULL STORY    VIDEO: ARRAY UNFURLS (398K QuickTime)    SPACEWALK PREVIEW STORY    ANIMATION: TRUSS ASSEMBLY    ANIMATION: ARRAY UNFURLS    SPACEWALK STATISTICS Evidence of ancient Martian lakes, shallow seas found In what ultimately may be their most significant discovery yet, Mars scientists say high-resolution pictures showing layers of sedimentary rock paint a portrait of an ancient Mars that long ago may have featured numerous lakes and shallow seas.    FULL STORY Launch of secret NRO craft on Atlas rocket reset A hush-hush spacecraft believed to be a new orbiting data relay station for the American fleet of spy satellite is poised for launch Tuesday evening atop a Lockheed Martin-built Atlas 2AS rocket from Cape Canaveral.    MISSION STATUS CENTER    LIVE LAUNCH WEBCAST Chandra sees cooling effect from galatic interaction Like a spoon moving through hot soup, a massive elliptical galaxy has cut a swath across the dense, hot gas in this crowded galaxy cluster known as Abell 1795 in this newly-released image from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.    FULL STORY DAILY BRIEFING  Other stories making news today Galileo continues probing Jovian magnetosphere -- With about a month before its next encounter, NASA's Galileo spacecraft completes another week of a 14-week long continuous survey of the Jovian magnetosphere with its Fields and Particles instruments. Monday: December 4, 2000   0511 GMT NASA engineers evaluate solar array problems Two spacewalking astronauts bolted a $600 million solar power tower to the international space station Sunday and one of two huge solar wings was successfully unfurled after several false starts. But deployment of a second wing was put on hold after engineers determined the two solar cell blankets making up the first wing were not as taut as expected after the wing was fully extended.    FULL STORY    MISSION STATUS CENTER (includes photos)    SPACEWALK PREVIEW STORY    ANIMATION: TRUSS ASSEMBLY    ANIMATION: ARRAY UNFURLS    SPACEWALK STATISTICS Choose from this menu:       Solar fireworks for SOHO sun probe's 5th anniversary In celebration of the birthday of its most diligent watcher, the Sun has let loose an unusual and quick-fire series of eruptions. Saturday was the 5th anniversary of SOHO's launch into space, which occurred on December 2, 1995 aboard an Atlas rocket from Cape Canaveral.    FULL STORY QuikScat ocean wind craft sees a quiet day in Atlantic A recently released image shows the winds over the Atlantic Ocean measured by the Seawinds instrument on NASA's QuickScat satellite. The spacecraft circles the globe once a day.    FULL STORY DAILY BRIEFING  Other stories making news today First phone calls placed through Thuraya 1 satellite -- In little more than a month following its launch, the Thuraya 1 geomobile communications satellite has successfully completed its initial round of testing, including the first telephone calls.				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. 27-Dec. 3: Shuttle Endeavour launches to space station rendezvous; XMM-Newton spacecraft finds most distant quasar; Sirius 3 radio satellite launched; Hubble spies extraordinary and powerful active galaxy; Frosty craters of Mars. Nov. 20-26: Jupiter: the movie; Delta launches three satellites; Launch failure for QuickBird 1; Daring high wire act to mount space station arrays; China lifts veil on its secret space program; U.S. Galaxy 7 TV satellite lost. Nov. 13-19: Cosmonaut docks cargo ship in dramatic fashion; Russia decides to dump Mir; Iridium system saved; Hot stars of Orion cluster uncovered in the making; Ariane 5 launch. 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. More news  See our weekly archive of space news. 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