Sunday: April 22, 2001   0103 GMT Action-packed day ahead in space for astronauts The Canadian-made space station robotic arm, folded up in a pallet, is scheduled for attachment into the orbiting outpost on Sunday as two spacewalking astronauts step outside Endeavour for a dramatic 6.5-hour excursion to assemble the $900 million limb. We will be have complete live coverage in the Status Center beginning at 4:15 a.m. EDT.    MISSION STATUS CENTER - updates!    ASTRONAUTS' MASTER FLIGHT PLAN Endeavour arrives at space station to deliver robot arm Shuttle skipper Kent Rominger guided Endeavour to a glacial docking with the international space station Saturday as the two spacecraft sailed 243 miles above the south Pacific Ocean at five miles per second.    FULL STORY    DETAILED DOCKING TIMELINE    MISSION THEATER - full video coverage    VIDEO: DOCKING (subscribers only) A wrinkle in space may ground lightweight mirrors Inflatable structures are ideal for many space applications, but very small wrinkles may make enormous mirrors impractical, says a researcher. Wrinkles make the polymer membranes currently used for space-based inflatable structures unsuitable for use as mirrors.    FULL STORY Princeton scientists design telescope for NASA contest It is possible that human beings are only a decade away from finding out whether or not it is alone in the Universe, and Princeton University is playing a large role in this potential discovery.    FULL STORY Saturday: April 21, 2001   0155 GMT Shuttle heads for Saturday link up with space station Space shuttle Endeavour is on course for its rendezvous with the international space station on Saturday. Docking is scheduled for just after 9:30 a.m. EDT. We will have live coverage in the Status Center:    MISSION STATUS CENTER - updates!    DETAILED DOCKING TIMELINE    ASTRONAUTS' MASTER FLIGHT PLAN    MISSION THEATER - full video coverage Honing in on impact of nuclear explosions in space Determining how nuclear explosions in space affect U.S. defense systems is what an Arnold Engineering Development Center team hope to determine using its new plasma radiation source "cold" X-ray test capability.    FULL STORY DAILY BRIEFING  Other stories making news today New spin put on mystery of missing solar neutrinos -- Every day the sun spews out subatomic particles called neutrinos, and instruments count how many make their way to Earth. But the instruments only detect half as many neutrinos as scientists expected to see. Where did all the neutrinos go? In recent years, scientists worldwide have converged on an answer. Friday: April 20, 2001   0250 GMT LIFTOFF OF ENDEAVOUR! The space shuttle Endeavour rocketed into orbit Thursday on a tricky, make-or-break flight to install a $900 million Canadian robot arm on the international space station, a high-tech space crane able to creep about the outpost like a mechanical inchworm.    FULL STORY    MISSION STATUS CENTER - updates!    DETAILED LAUNCH EVENTS CHART    MISSION THEATER - full video coverage    VIDEO: ENDEAVOUR LIFTS OFF (subscribers only)    VIDEO: CREW STRAPS IN (subscribers only) More mission coverage here:       Mars Odyssey spacecraft a bit hotter than expected NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft turned to face planet Earth and the Moon on Thursday to calibrate its Thermal Emission Imaging System. Meanwhile, engineers are in the process of redesigning the spacecraft's cruise attitude after they noted temperatures on the craft that were higher than expected.    FULL STORY NASA's Mars program chief to step down from post NASA announced Thursday that Mars Program Director, Scott Hubbard, has decided to leave that position following a successful year leading the agency's robotic exploration program.    FULL STORY Thursday: April 19, 2001   0340 GMT Endeavour poised for launch The countdown has entered the final hours for the launch of space shuttle Endeavour carrying the Canadian-made robotic arm to the international space station. And tonight workers are making final preparations for fueling Endeavour's external fuel tank with 500,000 gallons of super-cold fuel. You can follow the countdown in our Mission Status Center:    MISSION STATUS CENTER - updates    UPDATED LAUNCH WEATHER FORECAST    DETAILED LAUNCH EVENTS CHART    MISSION THEATER - full video coverage More mission coverage here:       Tito's crew tries out Soyuz Two Russian cosmonauts and a tourist from the United States tried their seats inside the Soyuz TM-32 spacecraft on Tuesday in preparation for the April 28 launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome toward the international space station.    FULL STORY New era begins for Cape Canaveral's launch pad 36A The U.S. Air Force's launch pad 36A at Cape Canaveral where Atlas rockets have been flown for 40 years is being turned over to Lockheed Martin for caretaking under a new $5.8 million contract that will keep the facility quasi-operational until the service comes up with money for deactivation.    FULL STORY What medieval witnesses saw was not lunar impact The idea that what humans witnessed and chronicled in 1178 A.D. was a major meteor impact that created the 22-kilometer (14-mile) lunar crater called Giordano Bruno is myth, a University of Arizona graduate student has discovered.    FULL STORY X-43A to make first scramjet hypersonic flight Imagine a new breed of aerospace vehicle, able to fly at seven times the speed of sound, using a next-generation air-breathing jet engine. NASA takes a hypersonic leap into the future of aerospace technology with the flight of the "scramjet"-powered X-43A.    FULL STORY Europe's XMM-Newton links black hole to microquasar Astronomers using XMM-Newton have presented strong new evidence on the correlation between black hole binary systems and microquasars - celestial objects that expel subatomic particles at relativistic velocities, practically at the speed of light.    FULL STORY Wednesday: April 18, 2001   1339 GMT Expedition Two crew leaves station for short trip For the Expedition Two astronauts today wasn't just another day aboard their orbiting outpost. The three-person crew left the station for a short time to move their escape capsule to a different docking port.    MISSION STATUS CENTER Launch countdown continues without a hitch Endeavour's countdown began on schedule Monday evening and continued smoothly Tuesday. NASA officials report there are no technical problems standing in the way of liftoff on Thursday. You can follow the three-day countdown in our Mission Status Center:    MISSION STATUS CENTER    UPDATED LAUNCH WEATHER FORECAST    DETAILED LAUNCH EVENTS CHART    MISSION THEATER - full video coverage    VIDEO: L-2 DAY COUNTDOWN BRIEFING (subscriber only)    VIDEO: CREW ARRIVAL (subscriber only) More mission coverage here:       New Indian rocket makes successful inaugural flight India's fledgling space program experienced a major boost Wednesday as the maiden Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle took to the skies and successfully delivered an experimental communications satellite into orbit.    FULL STORY Moon's dark side yield clues to Earth's climate Scientists have revived and modernized a nearly forgotten technique for monitoring Earth's climate by carefully observing "earthshine," the ghostly glow of the dark side of the moon.    FULL STORY DAILY BRIEFING  Other stories making news today Progress report on Galileo -- The pace of activity onboard NASA's Galileo spacecraft picks up a bit this week during the relatively quiet cruise portion of an orbit in order to maintain the health of the thrusters and of the tape recorder for when they are needed the most -- during the intense activities of the close satellite encounters. Tuesday: April 17, 2001   0324 GMT Station to grow two-handed arm during shuttle visit The shuttle Endeavour stands poised for blastoff Thursday on the most complex space station assembly flight yet attempted, a two-spacewalk mission to install a $900 million Canadian robot arm able to move around the station's exterior like a 58-foot-long mechanical inchworm. Read our multi-part mission preview!    FULL STORY    ASTRONAUTS' MASTER FLIGHT PLAN    QUICK-LOOK MISSION FACTS Astronauts arrive in Florida as countdown begins Astronauts representing four countries -- the most diverse for any one crew -- flew to Kennedy Space Center Monday morning, just hours before the countdown started in preparation for Endeavour's blastoff Thursday.    MISSION STATUS CENTER    LAUNCH WEATHER FORECAST    DETAILED LAUNCH EVENTS CHART    MISSION THEATER    VIDEO: L-3 DAY COUNTDOWN BRIEFING (subscriber only)    VIDEO: CREW ARRIVAL (subscriber only) More mission coverage here:       Contracts awarded for Mars sample return studies NASA's Mars Exploration Program has awarded four industry team contracts to conduct initial studies of specific implementation scenarios for a first Mars sample return mission that might be launched as early as 2011.    FULL STORY Nanotechnology gets a boost In the forefront of nanotechnology development, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has acquired one of the world's finest electron beam lithography systems, one that will allow researchers to work on the sub-molecular scale.    FULL STORY Monday: April 16, 2001   0452 GMT Cargo ship to undock from space station today The Russian Progress cargo freighter is slated to undock from the international space station at 4:33 a.m. EDT (0833 GMT), kicking off the busiest time for the infant outpost with the upcoming space shuttle visit and swap out of the Soyuz lifeboat capsule.    FULL STORY More mission coverage here:       Major solar flare erupts One of the largest solar flares ever recorded erupted from the sun's surface at around 1350 GMT on Sunday. The powerful flare, which sent a shower of high energy protons into space, was fortunately not directed at Earth.    FULL STORY Climate change linked to anomaly in Earth's orbit About 23 million years ago, a huge ice sheet spread over Antarctica, temporarily reversing a general trend of global warming and decreasing ice volume. Now a team of researchers has discovered that this climatic blip corresponded with a rare combination of events in the pattern of Earth's orbit around the Sun.    FULL STORY				Earlier news April 9-15: A virtual Columbia on its 20th anniversary; NASA's proposed '02 budget; Accident delays solar sail launch; Odyssey's launch put spacecraft on good course; Sun takes another solar shot. April 2-8: 2001 Mars Odyssey successfully launched; Eleven new extrasolar planets discovered; Hubble reveals heart of Whirlpool Galaxy; New evidence offered for planets without parent stars; Russian Proton M rocket debuts. March 26-April 1: A new Martian odyssey is about to begin; Alpha crew promises warm welcome for Tito; Iridium system completes its miracle resurrection; NASA and military continue search for Mars lander; Largest sunspot in 10 years blazes away; Two space probes see giant plumes on Io. March 19-25: Mir dives into Pacific safely; NASA blocks Dennis Tito training; Discovery departs space station; Station pioneers back on Earth after historic voyage; First XM radio satellite launched; Blinking star explains mystery aboard Galileo. 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. 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