Sunday: July 7, 2002   0001 GMT Legacy of Mars Pathfinder pushes future missions On Friday, July 4, 1997, American flags dressed the nation in a giant Independence Day celebration. How appropriate then that 119 million miles away from Earth, there was even more to celebrate: NASA's Mars Pathfinder mission had completed its seven-month journey by bouncing to a landing on Mars and opening up a whole new world of exploration.    FULL STORY New facility for developing space instruments An innovative calibration and instrument development facility at Southwest Research Institute is helping scientists and engineers test and design space plasma instruments far faster and more reliably than previously possible.    FULL STORY Saturday: July 6, 2002   0312 GMT Ariane 5 rocket successfully lofts two spacecraft Europe's Ariane 5 rocket launched its first commercial communications satellite payload in a year on Friday night, lofting French and Japanese spacecraft into Earth orbit.    MISSION STATUS CENTER Friday: July 5, 2002   0300 GMT High-energy activity heats up the Whirpool Galaxy X-rays from a rare type of supernova in the Whirpool Galaxy were recently observed, thanks to the fine resolution of NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The team of researchers also detected a large number of point-like X-ray sources due to black holes and neutron stars in binary star systems.    FULL STORY NASA extends shuttle SRB contract through May 2007 NASA has extended to May 2007 its six-and-a-half-year $2.4 billion contract with ATK Thiokol Propulsion in Brigham City, Utah, for the production and refurbishment of 70 Reusable Solid Rocket Motors for the space shuttle program.    FULL STORY Thursday: July 4, 2002   0406 GMT Ariane 5 to loft 2 satellites In just its second flight of 2002, Europe's new generation Ariane 5 rocket is set to launch a pair of communications satellites for customers in France and Japan on Friday evening. Liftoff is scheduled to occur at 2321 GMT (7:21 p.m. EDT) from the ELA-3 launch pad in Kourou, French Guiana.    MISSION STATUS CENTER JPL navigators drive two-for-one comet mission NASA's Comet Nucleus Tour will rely on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's navigation experts to guide the craft on its tricky journey toward two comets to find out how the icy, rocky bodies evolve as they approach the Sun.    FULL STORY Wednesday: July 3, 2002   1600 GMT Probe launched to see fossils of planet formation A tiny space probe was dispatched from Earth this morning for a tantalizing tour of comets -- the frozen time capsules that hold the primordial building blocks left over from the creation of our solar system.    FULL STORY    MISSION STATUS CENTER    LAUNCH EVENTS TIMELINE    LAUNCH GROUND TRACK MAP    DAILY LAUNCH WINDOWS CHART    CONTOUR SATELLITE FACT SHEET    MISSION SCIENCE OVERVIEW Video coverage for subscribers only:    VIDEO: LIVE NASA TV COVERAGE OF CONTOUR'S LAUNCH QT or RV    VIDEO: CLOSE-UP VIEW OF ENGINE IGNITION QT or RV    VIDEO: SPECTACULAR ANGLE FROM CAMERA ON TOWER QT or RV    VIDEO: TRACKING CAMERA VIEW FROM PATRICK AFB QT or RV    VIDEO: PRESS SITE VIEW OF THE LIFTOFF QT or RV    VIDEO: MOBILE TOWER ROLLED BACK FOR LAUNCH QT or RV    VIDEO: FOOTAGE OF DELTA ROCKET PROCESSING QT or RV    VIDEO: PRE-LAUNCH NEWS CONFERENCE QT or RV    VIDEO: PRE-LAUNCH SCIENCE BRIEFING QT or RV    SUBSCRIBE NOW Colorful fireworks finale caps a star's life Glowing gaseous streamers of red, white, and blue -- as well as green and pink -- illuminate the heavens like Fourth of July fireworks. The colorful streamers that float across the sky in this photo taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope were created by one of the biggest firecrackers seen to go off in our galaxy in recorded history, the titanic supernova explosion of a massive star.    FULL STORY Canada's SCISAT-1 unveiled And the countdown begins. Canada's first science satellite in over thirty years, SCISAT-1, was unveiled Tuesday at a ceremony at Magellan Aerospace's Bristol facility in Winnipeg. Scheduled for launch in January, SCISAT-1 will help a team of Canadian and international scientists improve their understanding of the depletion of the ozone layer, with a special emphasis on the changes occurring over Canada and in the Arctic.    FULL STORY Tuesday: July 2, 2002   0343 GMT Craft to launch Wednesday on quest to study comets NASA's CONTOUR space probe is ready to depart Earth early Wednesday for the first leg of its voyage to observe the hearts of comets -- the frozen remnants from the birth of our solar system. Liftoff aboard a Boeing Delta 2 rocket is set for 2:47 a.m. EDT (0647 GMT) from Cape Canaveral, Florida.    MISSION STATUS CENTER - updates!    LAUNCH EVENTS TIMELINE    LAUNCH GROUND TRACK MAP    DAILY LAUNCH WINDOWS CHART    CONTOUR SATELLITE FACT SHEET    MISSION SCIENCE OVERVIEW At 95, comet man embarks on out-of-this-world tour As the rocket blasts with CONTOUR, it will carry with it the thoughts and hopes of many earthbound scientists. But none of these scientists is more eminent than Dr. Fred L. Whipple, the oldest-ever member of a space mission science team.    FULL STORY Rosetta wishes CONTOUR luck chasing comets Comets are suddenly in vogue in space research. ESA is getting ready to send its comet chaser Rosetta in January 2003 to rendezvous with Comet Wirtanen and study it in immense detail.    FULL STORY 2002 comet awards announced Want some quick money in these days of WorldCom and Enron? Go and find a comet! An annual award of several thousand dollars for discoveries of comets by amateur astronomers has just been announced for the fourth consecutive year.    FULL STORY Monday: July 1, 2002   0010 GMT NASA sets Wednesday as launch date for comet probe NASA said Sunday that launch preparations are now on schedule for liftoff of the Boeing Delta 2 rocket with the CONTOUR comet probe early Wednesday morning from Cape Canaveral, Florida.    MISSION STATUS CENTER - updates!    LAUNCH EVENTS TIMELINE    LAUNCH GROUND TRACK MAP    DAILY LAUNCH WINDOWS CHART    CONTOUR SATELLITE FACT SHEET    MISSION SCIENCE OVERVIEW Earth observing technology satellite proves a success The new Earth monitoring technology aboard NASA's Earth-Observing 1 (EO-1) satellite has proven itself invaluable in its clarity and ability to more accurately identify objects on the Earth's surface, and will become part of a long-term Earth monitoring mission on the next Landsat satellite.    FULL STORY				NEW! Mission Report Apollo 11 - The NASA Mission Reports Vol. 3 is the first comprehensive study of man's first mission to another world is revealed in all of its startling complexity. Includes DVD!  U.S. STORE  WORLDWIDE STORE Contact us If you have a comment or question for Spaceflight Now, just send us an e-mail.