Sunday: December 9, 2001  0442 GMT
New space station crew moves aboard outpost
The Expedition Three crew -- commander Frank Culbertson, pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin -- officially ended their four-month residency onboard the International Space Station on Saturday as the new Expedition Four astronauts moved over from shuttle Endeavour.
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Station
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Satellites help study dining habits of sea lions, seals
Figuring out what a northern fur seal has eaten recently can be a messy business, says fisheries biologist Jeremy Sterling of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle, Wash. Determining where they have been eating is a bit more high-tech.
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Seal
Saturday: December 8, 2001  0503 GMT
Two science satellites launched by 100th Delta 2
Two spacecraft that will use the unique vantage point of space to study our home planet were successfully launched into orbit Friday by the 100th Boeing Delta 2 rocket.
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Delta 2
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Endeavour docks to station
Space shuttle Endeavour docked with the International Space Station on Friday to deliver the next resident crew to live aboard the orbiting outpost and pick up the current occupants for return to Earth.
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Endeavour
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Friday: December 7, 2001  0318 GMT
Boeing Delta 2 rocket poised for launch on Friday
A spacecraft that will make global measurements of Earth's oceans for climate research and a satellite designed to study a mysterious region of the atmosphere are scheduled for launch into space Friday atop the 100th Delta 2 rocket.
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Delta 2
Endeavour heads for docking with space station
Space shuttle Endeavour is on course for its rendezvous and docking with the International Space Station on Friday afternoon to deliver the next resident crew to live aboard the orbiting outpost. The link up is now scheduled for 2:59 p.m. EST (1959 GMT).
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Endeavour
Probe sees possible climate change on Red Planet
The planet Mars we know today is a cold, dry, desert world, but suppose the martian climate is changing even now, year to year and decade to decade? New observations by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft are expanding our understanding of the martian climate and may indicate the climate is changing significantly even today.
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Mars
A giant star factory in neighboring galaxy
Resembling curling flames from a campfire, this magnificent nebula in a neighboring galaxy is giving astronomers new insight into the fierce birth of stars as it may have more commonly happened in the early universe. The glowing gas cloud, called Hubble-V, has a diameter of about 200 light-years.
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Galaxy
Thursday: December 6, 2001  0510 GMT
Shuttle Endeavour soars into orbit
Under fighter jet protection, the heavily guarded space shuttle Endeavour finally rocketed into orbit Wednesday, carrying a fresh crew for the international space station and thousands of flags to honor the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
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Endeavour

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First image taken of a dark matter object released
Astronomers have observed a dark matter object directly for the first time. Images and spectra were taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and the ground-based Very Large Telescope to give a strong confirmation of the theory that a large fraction of dark matter exists as small, faint stars in galaxies such as our Milky Way.
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Object
Delta 2 rocket remains set to launch two satellites
Launch of the Boeing Delta 2 rocket with the Jason 1 and TIMED spacecraft remains on scheduled for Friday. Officials held the Launch Readiness Review on Wednesday and gave approval for activities to continue for the mission.
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Delta 2
Wednesday: December 5, 2001  0403 GMT
Weather delays Endeavour launch until Wednesday
Unacceptable weather conditions over the launch pad and at the emergency runway at Kennedy Space Center forced NASA to scrub Tuesday's liftoff of space shuttle Endeavour. Launch was rescheduled to 5:19 p.m. EST (2219 GMT) Wednesday.
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Endeavour
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Boeing Delta 2 to launch two satellites for NASA
The 100th Delta 2 rocket is awaiting launch on Friday to deliver two Earth-research satellites into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The Jason 1 and TIMED spacecraft will be lofted into two distinctly different orbits during a complex launch.
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Delta 2
A very massive stellar black hole in Milky Way Galaxy
One of the most enigmatic stellar systems in our Milky Way Galaxy has been shown to harbor a very massive black hole. With 14 times more mass than the Sun, this is the heaviest known stellar black hole in the Galaxy.
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Illustration
Tuesday: December 4, 2001  0208 GMT
Endeavour set to launch
Space shuttle Endeavour has been cleared for launch at 5:45 p.m. EST (2245 GMT) Tuesday from Kennedy Space Center. The shuttle's 11-day mission will ferry the next resident crew to the International Space Station and return the current occupants back to Earth.
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Endeavour
Spacewalkers clear debris, cargo ship latched to station
The two Russian cosmonauts living aboard the International Space Station ventured outside their orbiting home Monday and successfully cut away a rubbery O-ring seal that was preventing an unmanned cargo freighter from properly docking to the complex. The seal is believed to have been left by the last supply ship.
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Spacewalker
Mars' lumpy magnetic field
New research reveals that areas of the surface of Mars may be protected from the full force of solar radiation by areas of intensely magnetized crust. The startling vision of Mars' magnetosphere is being explored by using magnetometer data from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft.
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Mars
Genesis begins mission to collect samples of the Sun
NASA's Genesis mission officially opened for business Monday, as it extends its special collector arrays to catch atoms from the solar wind. The atoms it collects, believed to have been part of the solar nebula "cloud" from which our solar system developed, will help scientists gain a better understanding of the conditions in the distant past before the Earth and other planets formed.
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Genesis
Monday: December 3, 2001  0046 GMT
Crucial spacewalk set for Monday outside Alpha
The two Russian cosmonauts living aboard the International Space Station will go outside their orbiting home on Monday in hopes of clearing the obstruction keeping an unmanned cargo freighter from properly docking to the complex.
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Spacewalker
Mars was once all wet
Although covered by frozen deserts today, Mars could have been born with more water in proportion to its mass than the Earth, according to new observations from NASA's Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) spacecraft.
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Mars
Orbital's GEO satellite biz gets boost from PanAmSat
Orbital Sciences received another major industry endorsement for its smaller-sized geostationary satellite systems this past week when PanAmSat exercised a contract option to purchase two additional company-built C-band spacecraft.
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Satellite



Earlier news
Nov. 26-Dec. 2: Supply ship fails to firmly dock to station; Endeavour launch delayed; Planet orbiting nearby star found to have atmosphere; Ocean inside Jupiter moon may have cushioned impact; NASA picks Pluto mission for further study; Ariane 4 rocket launches DirecTV satellite.

Nov. 19-25: Evidence of Martian life dealt critical blow; Mars Global Surveyor snaps its 100,000th image; Two satellites transmit data using laser light.

Nov. 12-18: NASA administrator replacement found; Genesis spacecraft performs crucial maneuver; Mars Odyssey takes first visible picture; Meet Europe's gigantic Environment Satellite.

Nov. 5-11: Impact craters give clues about Europa's ice crust; Taurus failure update; Four shuttle astronauts enter Hall of Fame; Sky survey lowers estimate of asteroid impact risk.

More news  See our weekly archive of space news.


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Hubble poster
The Hubble Space Telescope's majestic view of the Eskimo Nebula. This spectacular poster is available now from the Astronomy Now Store.
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