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Sunday:
March 4, 2001 | |
0419 GMT |
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Volcanic Io erupts
Newly released images taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft captures a dynamic eruption at Tvashtar Catena, a chain of volcanic bowls on Jupiter's moon Io, and changes in the largest active field lava flows in the solar system, the Amirani flow.
 FULL STORY
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Commercial satellite to scan all of Jamaica
Space Imaging has signed an agreement with the government of Jamaica to take 1-meter, high resolution satellite images with the orbiting Ikonos spacecraft of the entire country to be used by land-related and mapping agencies.
FULL STORY
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Saturday:
March 3, 2001 | |
0400 GMT |
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Pluto mission clings to life
NASA will continue to accept proposals for a mission to Pluto at the request of Congress despite a proposed budget that includes no funding for such a mission, agency officials confirmed Friday.
FULL STORY
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DAILY BRIEFING Other stories making news today
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EUTELSAT looks across the Atlantic to buy new satellite -- EUTELSAT, the 48-member European Satellite Telecommunications Organization, has signed a contract for a broadband communications satellite from Boeing Satellite Systems Inc. The satellite, to be known as e-BIRD, is a spin-stabilized Boeing 376 HP model.
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Friday:
March 2, 2001 | |
0315 GMT |
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NASA kills X-33 and X-34
NASA announced Thursday that it would not provide any additional funding for the X-33 or X-34 launch vehicle technology demonstration programs, effectively killing both projects before either made its first flight.
FULL STORY
NASA NEWS RELEASE
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Setting sail through space
The Planetary Society and Cosmos Studios are ready to test the first solar sail ever deployed in space later this year. Solar sails are seen by many space observers as the "wave of the future" that will revolutionize space flight as spacecraft travel beyond the solar system.
FULL STORY
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Calling Pioneer 10
The longest operating deep-space probe is getting at least one more chance for life as project managers have secured observation time with radio antennas to try to contact the spacecraft for the first time since last summer.
FULL STORY
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DAILY BRIEFING Other stories making news today
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Rare meteorites rekindle solar system birth debate -- A new meteorite study is rekindling a scientific debate over the creation of our solar system. The study is based on the microscopic analysis of two rare meteorites recently discovered in Antarctica and Africa.
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Thursday:
March 1, 2001 | |
0601 GMT |
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NEAR Shoemaker phones home for the last time
NASA's NEAR Shoemaker -- the intrepid space probe that provided the first intensive examination of an asteroid -- has finally reached the end of its five-year adventure.
FULL STORY
MISSION STATUS CENTER
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Station, science squeezed in NASA budget proposal
President George W. Bush's 2002 budget proposal, released Wednesday, provides essentially no increase in funding for NASA while mandating serious reforms to the international space station and the cancellation of two planetary science missions.
FULL STORY
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Jupiter's largest moon may be a wet, slushy place
Planetary scientists studying Jupiter's icy moon Ganymede have combined stereo images from the Galileo and Voyager missions and found provocative features on the moon. They have mapped long swathes of bright flat terrain that they think is evidence of water or slush that emerged one billion years or so ago.
FULL STORY
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Hubble Space Telescope spots a galaxy on the edge
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has snapped this remarkable view of a perfectly "edge-on" galaxy. This new Hubble picture reveals with exquisite detail huge clouds of dust and gas extending along, as well as far above, the galaxy's main disk.
FULL STORY
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Wednesday:
February 28, 2001 | |
0512 GMT |
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Air Force Titan 4 carries out $1.2 billion mission
A sophisticated military communications switchboard-in-the-sky that promises to revolutionize the amount of information available to U.S. soldiers on the battlefield was successfully placed into Earth orbit Tuesday in a picture-perfect Titan 4 rocket launch.
FULL STORY
MISSION STATUS CENTER
VIDEO: LAUNCH OF THE TITAN 4
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Freighter nears link up with international space station
The Russian Progress M-44 cargo ship is scheduled to dock with the international space station today at 0948 GMT (4:48 a.m. EST), delivering equipment and supplies for the outpost's current and future residents. We will have live updates in our status center.
MISSION STATUS CENTER
GRAPHIC SHOWS APPROACH BY PROGRESS
DETAILED DOCKING TIMELINE
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Hubble zooms in on beautiful spiral galaxy
Astronomers have long suspected that the bar systems that dominate the appearance of some spiral galaxies provide an efficient mechanism for fuelling star births at their centers. New results from the Hubble Space Telescope provide evidence that this is indeed the case.
FULL STORY
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Some scientists skeptical of latest Mars life claims
The latest research into possible evidence of past Martian life has failed to win over some scientists, who remain skeptical of any claims that a Martian meteorite shows signs of life that once existed on Mars.
FULL STORY
EARLIER STORY
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DAILY BRIEFING Other stories making news today
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Next Ariane 5 rocket launch delayed -- Possible concerns with Europe's Ariane 509 rocket have forced a six-day delay in the mission's launch with two communications satellites, Arianespace says. The launch is now set for March 8.
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Tuesday:
February 27, 2001 | |
0426 GMT |
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Titan 4 rocket stands poised for blastoff today
There is $1.2 billion on the line today at Cape Canaveral where a powerful Titan 4B rocket awaits an afternoon launch carrying a crucial U.S. military communications satellite that will serve as a switchboard-in-the-sky. We will the most comprehensive live coverage throughout the day in our status center and Webcast.
MISSION STATUS CENTER
LIVE LAUNCH WEBCAST
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Grissom 'flies' one last time at Cape Canaveral
Lt. Col. Virgil "Gus" Grissom, one of our nation's first astronauts, will once again fly from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Grissom's "flight" is possible because the Air Force's Titan 4B rocket scheduled for launch today has been named "Gus" in honor of him.
FULL STORY
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New evidence found to suggest ancient Mars life
Crystals of the mineral magnetite, embedded within a famous Martian meteorite, have provided scientists with the latest evidence that primitive life once existed on Mars.
FULL STORY
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Stress, chaos form solar system's tallest mountains
Researchers studing images taken by the Galileo and Voyager spacecraft have found that enigmatic mountains on Jupiter's moon Io may be the combined result of heating, melting and tilting of giant blocks of crust. The moon has some of the tallest mountains in our solar system.
FULL STORY
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Monday:
February 26, 2001 | |
0940 GMT |
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Russians launch supply ship for space station Alpha
The Progress M-44 cargo freighter is bound for the international space station today after being propelled into orbit by a Russian Soyuz-U rocket. On Saturday, the three-man Expedition One departed the orbiting outpost for a short time to move their Soyuz capsule to a different docking port to make way for the Progress.
MISSION STATUS CENTER
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British government responds to NEO task force
The British government issued a response Saturday to a task force report on the threat posed by near-Earth asteroids and comets, concurring with many of the recommendations in the report but promising little in the way of immediate, concrete action.
FULL STORY
ASTEROID BLAMED FOR MASS EXTINCTION
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DAILY BRIEFING Other stories making news today
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Canada studies third-generation Radarsat satellite -- Work on the third Radarsat remote sensing satellite has officially gotten underway as the Canadian Space Agency issued a feasibility studies contract to MacDonald, Dettwiler, and Associates.
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The Hubble Space Telescope's majestic view of the Eskimo Nebula. This spectacular poster is available now from the Astronomy Now Store.