Sunday: May 6, 2001   0611 GMT Space vacation ends for Tito with Soyuz ride home Dennis Tito's historic eight-day adventure to the final frontier ended safely today when the Soyuz capsule carrying the 60-year old American businessman and two Russian cosmonauts touched down in Central Asia    MISSION STATUS CENTER - updates    VIDEO: SOYUZ UNDOCKS - subscribers only MAP spacecraft in Florida for launch preparations NASA's Microwave Anisotropy Probe is undergoing final readiness preparations at Kennedy Space Center for its upcoming launch this summer aboard a Boeing Delta 2 rocket. The craft is designed to make a full sky picture of cosmic microwave background radiation, the afterglow of the Big Bang.    FULL STORY Stellar disk 25,000 light years away 'resolved' Like our Sun, stars are large gaseous spheres. However, while we are able to perceive the Sun's disk, all other stars are so far away that they normally appear as points of light. Only specialized observing techniques are able to "resolve" the images of nearby stars and to show them as extended balls of fire.    FULL STORY Saturday: May 5, 2001   0234 GMT Genetically modified Earth plants will glow from Mars In what reads like a story from a 1950s science fiction magazine, a team of University of Florida scientists has genetically modified a tiny plant to send reports back from Mars in a most unworldly way: by emitting an eerie, fluorescent glow.    FULL STORY Soyuz to depart station tonight with Tito Dennis Tito's space joyride is drawing to a close. The first fare-paying tourist of the final frontier and two Russian cosmonauts are slated to depart the international space station Saturday night for their journey back to Earth aboard a Soyuz capsule.    MISSION STATUS CENTER Friday: May 4, 2001   0220 GMT Commercial experiments underway aboard station Three new commercial experiments are getting started on the international space station, marking a major milestone for NASA's Commercial Space Centers -- 17 centers across the United States that help industry conduct space experiments.    FULL STORY NASA issues Endeavour damage report Inspections have revealed space shuttle Endeavour suffered the expected number of debris hits during its just-completed voyage into orbit, NASA said Thursday. The shuttle is undergoing work to prepare for next week's cross-country trek from Edwards Air Force Base in California back to Kennedy Space Center in Florida.    MISSION STATUS CENTER Thursday: May 3, 2001   0303 GMT Odds of planet formation in Orion Nebula reduced In 1993, when the Hubble Space Telescope surveyed the Orion nebula for the first time, its images provided a substantial boost for the argument that stars with planetary systems are commonplace in the galaxy. Now, however, the most recent analyses of one the youngest, closest and brightest nebulae suggest that planets may be far rarer than thought.    FULL STORY Future aircraft might morph its features in flight A future aircraft might morph its wings, use smart sensors and actuators and more accurately mimic nature's methods of flight. NASA Administrator Dan Goldin described the aircraft as one of the linchpins of the Agency's aerospace research for the next 20 years.    FULL STORY Colliding galaxies provide clues to star formation By comparing computer simulations of a galaxy collision with actual observations, astronomers at the University of Illinois have found discrete star-formation episodes that may help explain the prodigious star-formation rates that occurred in the early universe.    FULL STORY DAILY BRIEFING  Other stories making news today New JPL director announces lab reorganization -- A reorganization designed to position the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for a new generation of challenges in space exploration has been announced by incoming Director Dr. Charles Elachi. Wednesday: May 2, 2001   0222 GMT Endeavour back on Earth Diverted by bad weather in Florida, the Endeavour astronauts glided to a smooth California landing Tuesday, leaving the repaired international space station behind in orbit and setting the stage for a milestone mission in June to complete the lab's initial assembly.    FULL STORY    MISSION STATUS CENTER    DETAILED ENTRY TIMELINE    LANDING GROUND TRACKS    VIDEO: TOUCHDOWN - subscribers only    VIDEO: LANDING DIVERTED - subscribers only    MISSION THEATER - full video coverage More mission coverage here:       Tito's reflections from space Space tourist Dennis Tito, into the second day of his stay on space station Alpha, was interviewed early Tuesday by Moscow-based reporters. Read his comments about his vacation so far.    FULL STORY Black holes may take space for a spin As if black holes weren't menacing enough, astronomers now have observational evidence that at least some of them spin about like whirlpools, wrapping up the fabric of space with them.    FULL STORY Big Bang evidence found Several teams of astronomers released new data this week from a suite of groundbased and balloon-borne instruments that they believe is the strongest evidence yet for the leading model for the formation of the universe.    FULL STORY Tuesday: May 1, 2001   1200 GMT NASA diverts Endeavour landing to Mojave Desert Space shuttle Endeavour is California bound. Faced with a dismal weather picture at Kennedy Space Center all week, NASA officials have decided to send Endeavour to the backup landing site at Edwards Air Force Base in California today. Touchdown is slated for 12:11 p.m. EDT.    MISSION STATUS CENTER - live updates    DETAILED ENTRY TIMELINE    LANDING GROUND TRACKS    AVAILABLE LANDING OPPORTUNITIES    MISSION THEATER - full video coverage Space tourist Tito checks in at the "Hotel Alpha" The Soyuz TM-32 spacecraft carrying U.S. millionaire space tourist Dennis Tito and two cosmonaut crewmates successfully docked with the international space station at 3:58 a.m. EDT Monday as the two vehicles sailed 240 miles above central Asia. They boarded the outpost at about 5:28 a.m. EDT.    FULL STORY    VIDEO: TITO "LOVES SPACE" - subscribers only    VIDEO: SOYUZ DOCKS - subscribers only    VIDEO: VIEW FROM STATION - subscribers only    VIDEO: SOYUZ APPROACH - subscribers only    TITO MISSION THEATER Dress rehearsal successful for flight of X-43A scramjet The NASA X-43A hypersonic research vehicle and its Pegasus booster rocket, mounted beneath the wing of their B-52 mother ship, had a successful first captive-carry flight over the weekend.    FULL STORY DAILY BRIEFING  Other stories making news today Students to present results of Jupiter studies to JPL -- A few of the 2,300 students from 13 states who have used a huge remote-control radio telescope to measure energy from Jupiter's radiation belts during the past six months will present their results May 4 to scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Monday: April 30, 2001   0323 GMT Endeavour departs station, Tito to arrive Monday The space shuttle Endeavour undocked from the partially repaired international space station Sunday, clearing the way for millionaire space tourist Dennis Tito to check in Monday for a $2.5 million-per-day visit.    FULL STORY - posted 4:50 p.m. EDT    MISSION STATUS CENTER    VIDEO: UNDOCKING - subscribers only    DETAILED UNDOCKING TIMELINE    MISSION THEATER - full video coverage More mission coverage here:       Unlikely failures triggered computer shutdowns After five days of extensive trouble shooting, engineers now believe the culprit responsible for crippling the international space station's computer system was the unlikely, near-simultaneous failures of two critical hard drives.    FULL STORY Pioneer 10 probe lives on In a possibly last-ditch attempt to try to contact Pioneer 10, ground controllers successfully received the deep-space probe's faint radio signal Saturday, washing away fears that the craft had been forever lost.    FULL STORY Solar flare blamed for glitch on Mars Odyssey NASA's Mars-bound Odyssey spacecraft suffered a reset of one onboard computer last week, possibly due to a solar flare. Flight controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory say the probe is doing fine, however.    FULL STORY DAILY BRIEFING  Other stories making news today Final preparation tests for Europe's Artemis satellite -- ESA's Artemis spacecraft has just completed a rigorous schedule of final inspections and testing at the European launch site in Kourou, French Guiana. The spacecraft and its sensitive instruments have been protected from the unfriendly tropical conditions in a special, environmentally-sealed testing chamber.				Earlier news April 23-29: Tito's tourist trip blasts off; Serious computer problem strikes space station; Robot arm attached to station by shuttle crew; Hubble makes popular observation for its birthday; Mars Odyssey takes snapshot of Earth. April 16-22: Endeavour launches with Canadarm2 for station; New Indian rocket makes inaugural flight; Climate change linked to anomaly in Earth's orbit; What medieval witnesses saw was not lunar impact. 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. 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