Sunday: December 16, 2001   1600 GMT Astronauts deploy satellite The student-built Starshine-2 satellite was deployed from space shuttle Endeavour's payload bay at 10:02 a.m. EST today as the ship flew 240 miles over the South Pacific. The craft resembles a disco ball with about 900 highly polished mirrors covering its surface.    FULL STORY Video coverage for subscribers only:    VIDEO: STARSHINE-2 DEPLOYED FROM ENDEAVOUR QT or RV    VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS' VIEW OF DEPLOYMENT QT or RV    VIDEO: PRE-LANDING NEWS CONFERENCE QT or RV    VIDEO: CNN'S MILES O'BRIEN INTERVIEWS CREW QT or RV    MORE: COMPLETE SFN+ VIDEO INDEX Endeavour departs station Endeavour maneuvered the international space station away from the path of a piece of space junk Saturday, then undocked from the complex after an eight-day stay that delivered a new resident crew and three tons of supplies. The Expedition Three crew is now riding Endeavour home after four months on the station.    FULL STORY Video coverage for subscribers only:    VIDEO: JOINT CREW FAREWELL CEREMONY QT or RV    VIDEO: SHUTTLE UNDOCKS FROM SPACE STATION QT or RV    VIDEO: HATCHWAY TO RAFFAELLO SEALED UP QT or RV    VIDEO: RAFFAELLO DETACHED FROM STATION QT or RV    MORE: COMPLETE SFN+ VIDEO INDEX Saturday: December 15, 2001   0522 GMT Shuttle Endeavour to boost station, then undock The undocking of Endeavour from the international space station on Saturday has been pushed back about a half-hour from the original plan to enable the space shuttle to maneuver the complex away from the path of space junk.    MISSION STATUS CENTER - updates FUSE project works to restore science operations Science operations for the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) mission ceased this week when the second of four reaction wheels, used to precisely point and maintain the spacecraft's attitude, stopped.    FULL STORY Friday: December 14, 2001   0233 GMT Station command handed over; shuttle glitch studied Departing space station commander Frank Culbertson formally turned over the lab complex to Expedition Four commander Yury Onufrienko and his two American crewmates Thursday. Meanwhile, engineers are troubleshooting an apparent glitch with one of the shuttle Endeavour's three inertial measurement units.    FULL STORY X-38 completes highest, fastest, longest test flight The X-38 prototype crew rescue vehicle successfully completed its highest, fastest and longest flight to date Thursday at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, a test flight that intersected some of the most critical conditions such a craft would experience when returning from space.    FULL STORY DAILY BRIEFING  Other stories making news today Loral receives orders for XTAR EUR and SpainSat satellites -- Space Systems/Loral has finalized firm contracts for the construction of two new X-band satellites. XTAR EUR and SpainSat, to be operated by XTAR and Hisdesat respectively, will provide leased satellite communication services to the U.S. Department of Defense and affiliated agencies, the Spanish Ministry of Defense and other allied governments. Thursday: December 13, 2001   0540 GMT Astronauts keep busy The shuttle and space station astronauts continued to work together on Wednesday, transferring supplies and performing maintenance work aboard the orbiting outpost, including an overhaul of Alpha's treadmill.    MISSION STATUS CENTER More mission coverage here:       Astrophysicist: End of the Universe frozen in time Astronomers often investigate the beginning of the Universe, starting with the Big Bang. New data is shedding light on the opposite end of the arrow of time - how the Universe might end.    FULL STORY 'Restless Earth' may give advance notice of quakes Signals that come from deep within the Earth eventually may give us a few days' warning before some large earthquakes, according to a scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center. The source of these signals lies deep in the Earth's crust, where forces squeeze rocks to the limit before they rupture catastrophically, shaking the ground with destructive force.    FULL STORY Wednesday: December 12, 2001   0535 GMT Departing station crew eager for home, 'cold beer' The departing crew of the international space station said Tuesday they're looking forward to hot showers and reunions with friends and family members after four long months in orbit. American commander Frank Culbertson said he's looking forward to a bowl of ice cream. For Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, "a big glass of cold beer would be fine."    FULL STORY    MISSION STATUS CENTER More mission coverage here:       Video coverage for subscribers only:    VIDEO: 3-MONTH ANNIVERSARY OF SEPT. 11 MARKED QT or RV    VIDEO: WATCH ENTIRE CREW NEWS CONFERENCE QT or RV    VIDEO: TUESDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING QT or RV    MORE: COMPLETE SFN+ VIDEO INDEX Astronomers pin down Dark Matter distribution The Universe's mysterious invisible Dark Matter is distributed on large scales in exactly the same way the galaxies are, according to scientists analyzing data from the giant 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey done with the 3.9-m Anglo-Australian Telescope in eastern Australia. The finding means the Universe is surprisingly simple.    FULL STORY Cluster quartet probes the secrets of the black aurora Anyone living near the Arctic Circle will be familiar with aurorae, the legendary red and green curtains that illuminate the long winter nights. Much less familiar is the mysterious 'black aurora', a strange electrical phenomenon that produces dark, empty regions within the visible Northern and Southern Lights.    FULL STORY Tuesday: December 11, 2001   0150 GMT Spacewalkers add thermal blankets to space station Astronauts Daniel Tani and Linda Godwin successfully wrapped insulation blankets around two critical solar array drive motors Monday to accomplish the primary objective of a four-hour spacewalk. But they were unable to tighten up a solar array support truss that failed to lock fully in place when the arrays were deployed last year.    FULL STORY    MISSION STATUS CENTER    UPDATED SPACEWALK STATISTICS Io generates power and noise, but no magnetic field A great roar of acoustic waves near the north and south poles of Jupiter's moon Io shouts about the power of the volcanic moon. The wave data, new pictures and other information collected recently by NASA's Galileo spacecraft provide insight into what happens above Io's surface, at its colorful volcanoes and inside its hot belly.    FULL STORY Astronomers find a festive star that does the twist Discovered by astronomers during Christmas observations in Australia, a star was found with a new phenomenon of twisting. The behavior demonstrates a slow change in the way the star spins on its axis. This twisting has been predicted by some theories of the way in which stars generate their magnetic fields, but until now it has never been observed directly.    FULL STORY Zenit 2 rocket launches five satellite payloads into space A Ukrainian Zenit 2 rocket on Monday launched the Russian Meteor 3M-N1 Earth observation spacecraft that features NASA's Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment-3 atmospheric research instrument.    FULL STORY DAILY BRIEFING  Other stories making news today Former astronaut to head NASA's Office of Space Flight -- NASA Associate Administrator Frederick D. Gregory, an astronaut and the senior executive currently responsible for the safety and reliability of all agency programs, has been named Acting Associate Administrator for the Office of Space Flight. Monday: December 10, 2001   0502 GMT Victims of terrorist attacks honored by astronauts The ten orbiting astronauts paused their work for a few minutes on Sunday and paid tribute to those killed in the September 11 terrorist attacks on America.    FULL STORY Video coverage for subscribers only:    VIDEO: WATCH FULL COMMEMORATION EVENT QT or RV    MORE: COMPLETE SFN+ VIDEO INDEX Spacewalk on tap today A four-hour spacewalk is planned for today outside the international space station to install thermal blankets around the motors and bearings used to rotate the U.S. solar arrays to track the sun. The excursion by shuttle astronauts Linda Godwin and Dan Tani is expected to begin at about 12:24 p.m. EST (1724 GMT).    MISSION STATUS CENTER				Earlier news Dec. 3-9: Spacewalkers clear debris, cargo ship latched to station; Endeavour launches to Alpha; New crew moves aboard station; Two science satellites launched by 100th Delta 2; First image of dark matter object; Possible climate change on Mars. 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. 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