Sunday: September 15, 2002  0331 GMT
Gravity mission on track to map Earth's shifty mass
Six months into its mission to precisely measure Earth's shifting water masses and map their effects on Earth's gravity field, the joint NASA-German Aerospace Center Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, or Grace, is already producing results of considerable interest.
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GRACE
From satellites to sea: JPL scientists map ocean eddies
Just as sunlight glints off the ocean's surface, so do radio signals from the constellation of global positioning system navigation satellites orbiting Earth. Now, researchers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have shown that although these reflected signals are very weak, they can be detected by airborne instruments and used to map ocean eddies.
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Plane
Saturday: September 14, 2002  0001 GMT
Surprising black hole activity in old galaxies
Scientists at the Carnegie Observatories have uncovered six times the expected number of active, supermassive black holes in a single viewing of a cluster of galaxies, a finding that has profound implications for theories as to how old galaxies fuel the growth of their central black holes.
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Chandra
Rare class of exotic stars revealed as super-magnets
Scientists have found that a rare and enigmatic class of neutron stars, of which only five are known, are actually magnetars -- exotic stars with magnetic fields trillions of times stronger than the Sun's or Earth's, so powerful that they could strip a credit card clean 100,000 miles away.
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Magnetar
Friday: September 13, 2002  0200 GMT
Sneak peek at 'shuttlecam'
When space shuttle Atlantis thunders to orbit next month a video camera mounted to the external fuel tank will provide an unprecedented live view as the ship and six astronauts go from zero to 17,500 mph in just over eight minutes.
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Shuttlecam
A rose blooming in space
Resembling a delicate rose floating in space, the nebula N11A is seen in a new light in a true-colour image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Fierce radiation from massive stars embedded at the centre of N11A illuminates the surrounding gas with a soft fluorescent glow.
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Hubble
Indian weather satellite launched into space
A PSLV rocket lifted off Thursday from the Sriharikota launch base in India carrying the METSAT weather satellite. The four-stage vehicle injected the spacecraft into geosynchronous transfer orbit. METSAT is India's first satellite totally dedicated to weather observing. Previous satellites were combo platforms for meteorology and telecommunications.
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PSLV
Thursday: September 12, 2002  0010 GMT
Newly found object could be old Apollo rocket stage
An analysis of the orbital motion of the newly discovered object J002E3 indicates that it could be a leftover Saturn 5 third stage from one of the Apollo missions, most likely Apollo 12, launched on November 14, 1969.
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Stage
ESA to look for the missing link in gravity
Although you can never be certain of predicting future developments in science, there is a good chance of a fundamental breakthrough in physics soon. With a series of unique experiments and missions designed to test our understanding of gravity, the European Space Agency hopes to get to the very bottom of it.
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ESA
Satellite data could track terrorist threats
Orbiting 500 miles above the planet, satellites give scientists a "big picture" view of changes to the Earth's landscape -- from suburbanization trends to shoreline erosion. Now, an Ohio University researcher is using the technology to try to detect a more dangerous activity: terrorism and the areas of the country most vulnerable to potential attacks.
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Ohio
Wednesday: September 11, 2002  0203 GMT
NASA selects TRW to build Hubble successor
NASA announced Tuesday that it has selected TRW to build a next generation space telescope that will replace the Hubble Space Telescope at the end of the decade. The space agency also announced that the observatory will henceforth be known as the James Webb Space Telescope, after the late Apollo-era NASA administrator.
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   NASA STATEMENT
Next Generation Space telescope
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Atlantis journeys to the pad for station mission
Riding atop its repaired Apollo-era crawler-transporter, space shuttle Atlantis made the 4.2-mile trek from the Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building to launch pad 39B Tuesday morning. The shuttle is scheduled for liftoff October 2 to deliver the next truss structure to the International Space Station.
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Atlantis
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Research reveals new Kuiper Belt satellite mystery
The Kuiper Belt region of the solar system, which stretches from just past Neptune to beyond the farthest reaches of Pluto's orbit, was only discovered in 1992, but continues to reveal new knowledge into the formation processes of the planets. Now, in a paper to be published in the October issue of The Astronomical Journal, a scientist reveals a new mystery about Kuiper Belt Objects.
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KBO
Tuesday: September 10, 2002  1040 GMT
Japanese H-2A rocket launches successfully
After two successful test flights, Japan's H-2A rocket launched on its first operational mission today carrying a pair of satellite cargos into two distinctively different orbital perches above Earth.
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H-2A
Hispasat mounted aboard Atlas-Centaur rocket
A Spanish telecommunications satellite was bolted atop its space launcher Monday at Cape Canaveral's pad 36A to start the final push for next week's blastoff of the Lockheed Martin Atlas 2AS rocket.
   MISSION STATUS CENTER
Atlas
Ion engine to open up the solar system
To most vehicle owners, the value of their vehicle decreases while the mileage on the engine increases. That wisdom does not hold true for NASA's ion engine, whose odometer continues to spin to the delight of its owners.
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Dawn
Galileo orbiter heads back to Jupiter
NASA's Galileo spacecraft is still healthy and active as it continues its long trek back in towards Jupiter for its final planned science pass in November.
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Galileo
Monday: September 9, 2002  0415 GMT
Software trouble delays first Boeing Delta 4 launch
The debut launch of Boeing's Delta 4 rocket has been delayed almost a month while ground software designed to automate the final minutes of the countdown is debugged. Originally scheduled for October 9, the company has picked November 3 as the new launch date.
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Delta 4
Japanese booster to place two satellites in orbit
Japan's H-2A rocket is being primed and readied for liftoff Tuesday on its first operational flight, carrying two diverse satellite payloads into vastly different orbits around Earth. Launch is scheduled for 0820 GMT (4:20 a.m. EDT).
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H-2A
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