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Sunday:
November 11, 2001 | |
0435 GMT |
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Four shuttle astronauts enter Hall of Fame
The first class of pioneering space shuttle astronauts were inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame on Saturday at Kennedy Space Center as veteran commanders Robert Crippen, Joe Engle, Richard Truly and Rick Hauck took their place along side Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz fliers.
 FULL STORY
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Satellites shed light on a warmer world
While winter may be approaching, researchers using data from satellites and weather stations around the world have found the air temperature near the Earth's surface has warmed on average by 1 degree F (0.6 degree C) globally over the last century, and they cite human influence as at least a partial cause.
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"Superplumes" lift Earth's continents, Mars' Tharsis?
A budding theory to describe Earth processes could help solve some
martian mysteries as well. A group of scientists are introducing the idea that the "superplume" concept of magma dynamics applies to a huge upland area on Mars known as Tharsis.
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Saturday:
November 10, 2001 | |
0401 GMT |
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Sky survey lowers estimate of asteroid impact risk
The odds of earth suffering a catastrophic collision with an asteroid over the next century are about one in 5,000, which is less likely than previously believed, according to research published this month.
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Science mission defined for NASA's 2005 Mars probe
NASA announced Friday the selection of 10 scientific investigations as part of the 2005 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission. The probe will carry six primary instruments that will greatly enhance the search for evidence of water, take images of objects about the size of a beach ball, and search for future landing sites on the Martian surface.
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Satellite shows Pacific recycles last year's winter
If you liked last winter, you'll like this one. If not, you won't. The Pacific ocean continues to be dominated by the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, an above normal sea level pattern that is larger and stronger than any El Nino/La Nina event, according to the latest information from the U.S.-French Topex/Poseidon satellite.
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Friday:
November 9, 2001 | |
0439 GMT |
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Impact craters give clues about Europa's ice crust
Impact craters on Europa -- the jovian satellite that scientists say may hide a subsurface liquid ocean - show that the moon's brittle ice shell crust is more than 3 to 4 kilometers (1.8 to 2.4 miles) thick, two University of Arizona planetary scientists report. The thickness of Europa's hard ice shell is a hot scientific debate.
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Shuttle crew practices launch pad procedures
The seven Endeavour astronauts will suit up and board their spaceship at Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39B today for a practice countdown that culminates with a simulated engine shutdown as clocks reach zero.
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LAUNCH WINDOWS CHART
LAUNCH EVENTS TIMELINE
MEET THE CREW
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U.S. Congress approves NASA's 2002 budget
The U.S. House of Representatives and Senate passed a compromise version of the 2002 budget for NASA on Thursday, approving funding for a Pluto mission but deleting money intended for a crew return vehicle for the International Space Station.
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Thursday:
November 8, 2001 | |
0211 GMT |
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Investigators find problem that doomed Taurus launch
A stuck steering mechanism on the Orbital Sciences Taurus rocket is being blamed for the September launch failure that resulted in the loss of two satellite cargoes, the company's president said Wednesday.
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NASA's HETE spots rare gamma-ray burst afterglow
A rare optical afterglow of a gamma-ray burst, the most powerful type of explosion in the universe, was recently discovered by NASA's High Energy Transient Explorer (HETE), the first satellite dedicated to spotting these frequent yet random explosions that last only for a few seconds.
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DIRECTV satellite shipped for late November launch
DIRECTV-4S, a new high-power spot beam satellite, has been shipped to the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana for launch later this month. Built by Boeing, this spacecraft will use highly focused spot beam technology that will provide DIRECTV with the capacity to deliver more than 300 additional local channels to its 41 local channel markets.
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Wednesday:
November 7, 2001 | |
0208 GMT |
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Looking inside sunspots
Scientists now have the first clear picture of what lies beneath sunspots, enigmatic planet-sized dark areas on the Sun's surface, and have peered inside the Sun to see swirling flows of electrified gas or plasma that create a self-reinforcing cycle, which holds a sunspot together.
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Insurance woes may hurt space industry
A string of recent communication satellite problems and recent world events has put a strain on space insurance firms which could make it more difficult for companies to launch new spacecraft, industry experts said at a conference.
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ICO Global and ICO reach final agreement on merger
ICO Global Limited, the satellite holding company formed by telecommunications entrepreneur Craig McCaw, announced that it has reached final agreement on its merger with New ICO Global Communications (Holdings) Limited. ICO Global also has agreed with Teledesic Corporation to end their proposed merger.
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DAILY BRIEFING Other stories making news today
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Eurockot picked to launch Japanese satellite -- The launch of the Japanese SERVIS-1 spacecraft will be performed with the Rockot launch vehicle, Eurockot Launch Services of Bremen, Germany has announced. Liftoff is planned for 2003 and will take place from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia.
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Tuesday:
November 6, 2001 | |
0324 GMT |
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Observation deepens mystery of local galaxy
In the deepest ground-based mid-infrared image ever, the Gemini North Telescope reveals that the mysterious environment around one of the most massive black holes in the Universe is missing a key feature predicted by astronomical theory.
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Tom Cruise to narrate IMAX movie about space station
Multi Academy Award nominee Tom Cruise will narrate the first-ever IMAX 3D space film, "Space Station", it was announced Monday. The giant-screen film documents one of the most challenging engineering feats by NASA: the construction of the International Space Station. The film is set for release next spring.
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DAILY BRIEFING Other stories making news today
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Galileo status update -- Another uneventful week on the engineering front leaves the Galileo spacecraft time to focus its attentions on playback of the recorded data from the October 15 flyby of Io.
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Monday:
November 5, 2001 | |
0258 GMT |
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Mars orbiter sees landslide
Ganges Chasma is a several kilometers-deep side canyon at the east end of the vast Valles Marineris trough system on Mars. In several places, portions of the steep walls of Ganges Chasma have collapsed down into the chasm, creating large landslide deposits.
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DAILY BRIEFING Other stories making news today
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Earthquake studies: Fault moving faster than believed -- Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and the University of California, Los Angeles, have concluded that earthquake fault zones in California's eastern Mojave Desert are moving in different ways than they expected.
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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.