|
Sunday:
March 31, 2002 | |
0319 GMT |
 |
Intelsat 903 spacecraft launched by Proton booster
A Russian Proton rocket successfully transported a commercial satellite into orbit Saturday that will provide telecommunications services to the Americas, Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
 FULL STORY
MISSION STATUS CENTER
 | |
|
|
Video coverage for subscribers only:
VIDEO: PROTON ROCKET LIFTS OFF WITH INTELSAT 903 QT or RV
VIDEO: PRE-LAUNCH PROCESSING OF PROTON ROCKET QT or RV
VIDEO: PROTON ERECTED ON THE LAUNCH PAD QT or RV
VIDEO: NARRATED LAUNCH SEQUENCE MOVIE QT or RV
VIDEO: INTELSAT 903 MISSION OVERVIEW QT or RV
|
Testing smartest technique for finding distant planets
To see a dim planet around a bright star is like looking for a candle flame next to a searchlight. To solve this problem, scientists have developed the concept of nulling interferometry, one of the smartest methods to date in the search for extrasolar planets.
FULL STORY
| |
|
|
Shuttle gets new lift to orbit
More than 100 companies across the country will mark a significant milestone April 4, with the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis: The Shuttle is getting a new lift -- three improved Main Engines that will make the world's only reusable launch vehicle safer and more reliable than ever before.
FULL STORY
| |
|
|
|
Saturday:
March 30, 2002 | |
0500 GMT |
|
Project cleared to build Mercury orbiter probe
The first mission to orbit the planet Mercury took a big step toward its scheduled March 2004 launch when NASA's MESSENGER project received approval to start building its spacecraft and scientific instruments.
FULL STORY
| |
|
|
Astronauts train with space station solar arrays
A group of 16 NASA astronauts, who will be flying to the International Space Station in the next few years to install the remaining Lockheed Martin-built solar arrays, visited the Company's facility in Sunnyvale on Thursday to observe at first hand the deployment of a massive solar array blanket.
FULL STORY
| |
|
|
|
Friday:
March 29, 2002 | |
0532 GMT |
|
Ariane 4 launches a pair of commercial satellites
A pair of Japanese and European satellites, both built in the U.S. by Boeing, shared a ride into space Thursday night atop an Arianespace Ariane 4 rocket.
FULL STORY
MISSION STATUS CENTER
| |
|
|
Russian Proton rocket set for launch Saturday
The first commercial launch of a Proton rocket in 9 months is set to lift off from the desert steppes of Kazakhstan Saturday, lofting the fourth satellite in the newest series of communications spacecraft for international operator Intelsat.
MISSION STATUS CENTER
| |
|
|
Chandra discovers black holes in distant quasars
Pushing further back toward the first generation of objects to form in the Universe, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has observed the three most distant known quasars and found them to be prodigious producers of X-rays. This indicates that the supermassive black holes powering them were already in place when the Universe was only about one billion years old.
FULL STORY
| |
|
|
New solar flare satellite gets renamed, now on line
Nearly two months after the launch of NASA's solar flare satellite, HESSI, the University of California, Berkeley, scientists who designed and build it couldn't be happier. The satellite is working flawlessly and has already captured numerous explosive flares as well as X-ray and gamma ray flashes from elsewhere in the cosmos.
FULL STORY
| |
|
|
|
Thursday:
March 28, 2002 | |
0342 GMT |
|
New class of objects found in nearby galaxies
Astronomers searching for globular star clusters in a nearby galaxy have discovered an entirely new class of objects, unlike anything previously described. Much larger and fainter than typical globular clusters, the new objects were first detected in Hubble Space Telescope images of the lenticular galaxy NGC 1023. They may hold clues to how galaxies of this type formed.
FULL STORY
| |
|
|
Ariane 4 to launch pair of commercial satellites
Arianespace's fourth mission of 2002 is poised to blast itself skyward Thursday evening, carrying two Boeing-built communications satellites for Japanese and European companies.
MISSION STATUS CENTER
| |
|
|
Amino acids formed in space-like environment
NASA scientists announced Wednesday the creation of amino acids, critical for life, in an environment that mimics deep space. A team of astrobiologists shone ultraviolet light on deep-space-like "ices," simulating conditions that are commonplace in interstellar space. They subsequently discovered amino acids, molecules present in, and essential for, life on Earth.
FULL STORY
| |
|
|
Daily pictures now available from Mars Odyssey
Need to get away to someplace exotic? Mars is now open for daily sightseeing. Recent images of Mars taken by the Thermal Emission Imaging System on NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft are available to the public on the Internet. A new, "uncalibrated" image taken by the visible light camera will be posted at 10 a.m. EST daily, Monday through Friday.
FULL STORY
| |
|
|
|
Wednesday:
March 27, 2002 | |
0515 GMT |
|
Shuttle Atlantis to launch station truss next week
NASA managers meeting at Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday affirmed plans to launch space shuttle Atlantis on April 4 to deliver a massive truss to the International Space Station. But although the agency isn't announcing the target liftoff time, it has been available publicly for months, can be readily calculated on home computers or figured out with simple subtraction.
FULL STORY
| |
|
|
Space station crew members unload supplies
The Expedition 4 crew spent most of Tuesday unpacking supplies and equipment delivered by the Progress resupply ship that docked on Sunday. They also performed routine housekeeping tasks and some experiment activities, including loading new software to fix a problem with a radition monitoring experiment.
MISSION STATUS CENTER
| |
|
|
Administrator O'Keefe pitches his vision for NASA
NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe described his vision for the space agency on Tuesday, emphasizing the development of technologies to solve key problems in space exploration rather than focusing on a particular destination.
FULL STORY
| |
|
|
Ariane 4 to launch pair of commercial satellites
Arianespace's fourth mission of 2002 is poised to blast itself skyward Thursday evening, carrying two Boeing-built communications satellites for Japanese and European companies.
MISSION STATUS CENTER
| |
|
|
|
Tuesday:
March 26, 2002 | |
0530 GMT |
|
China's Shenzhou test-flight underway
The third unmanned test flight of China's Shenzhou space capsule is underway after the prototype manned spacecraft blasted off from the Jiuquan Space Launch Centre at 1400 GMT today.
FULL STORY
| |
|
|
Hubble Space Telescope spies hyperactive galaxy
A newly released Hubble Space Telescope image shows the disturbed spiral galaxy NGC 7673 is ablaze with the light from millions of new stars. Each of its infant giant blue star clusters shines 100 times as brightly in the ultraviolet as similar immense star clusters in our own Galaxy.
FULL STORY
| |
|
|
Shocking experience in planetary formation
The search for Earths around other stars is one of the most pressing questions in astrophysics today. To home in on what conditions are necessary for Earth-like bodies to form, however, scientists must first solve the mystery of how our own Earth arose.
FULL STORY
| |
|
|
|
Monday:
March 25, 2002 | |
0340 GMT |
|
Russian resupply ship arrives at space station
A Russian resupply ship arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday, bringing fuel, food and other essential items for the outpost's fourth resident crew. The craft docked with the orbiting complex at 2058 GMT (3:58 p.m. EST).
MISSION STATUS CENTER
| |
|
|
Test subjects wanted for hypergravity experiment
If you've ever wanted to experience the sensation space shuttle
astronauts feel during liftoff and landing -- or if spinning around in
circles all day inside a large NASA centrifuge is your idea of a good
time -- then Malcolm Cohen wants to hear from you.
FULL STORY
| |
|
|
