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Sunday:
June 8, 2003 | |
0401 GMT |
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NASA's Mars Exploration Rover to launch today
After a three-year, $800 million campaign to dispatch a pair of Mars Exploration Rovers to the Red Planet, the first craft is just hours away from launch. Liftoff is scheduled for 2:05:55 p.m. EDT (1805:55 GMT) aboard a Boeing Delta 2 rocket from Cape Canaveral.
 MISSION STATUS CENTER - updates
LAUNCH EVENTS TIMELINE
ASCENT GROUND TRACK
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Twin roving geologists bound for surface of Mars
Building on past successes -- and learning from embarrassing failures -- NASA is poised to jump start its Mars exploration program by sending a pair of "monster truck" rovers to the Red Planet in a mission to search for clues about what happened to the water than once carved the martian surface.
FULL STORY
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Rovers undergo biological cleaning before launch
What do NASA's soon-to-be-launched Mars Exploration Rover spacecraft have in common with the Viking and Voyager spacecraft launched decades ago? Besides being interplanetary explorers, they will be among the biologically cleanest spacecraft ever launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
FULL STORY
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Cargo freighter awaits launch to space station
A Russian Progress resupply craft is scheduled for liftoff at 1034 GMT (6:34 a.m. EDT) today from Baikonur Cosmodrome atop a unmanned Soyuz rocket. The Progress is carrying about 5,300 pounds of supplies for the station's crew -- Expedition 7 commander Yuri Malenchenko and NASA science officer Ed Lu.
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Saturday:
June 7, 2003 | |
1230 GMT |
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Foam impact cracks wing leading edge panel
In a potentially significant breakthrough, engineers fired a 1.7-pound chunk of foam insulation at shuttle wing mockup Friday, visibly cracking a leading edge panel in a test that strongly supports the widely held hypothesis that a foam strike during Columbia's launch doomed the orbiter and its crew.
FULL STORY
FOAM TEST DELAYED (posted Thursday)
STS-107 STORY DIRECTORY
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Russian Proton rocket flies its 300th launch
In a commercial mission Friday night that was anything but a sprint, the milestone 300th flight of the Russian Proton heavy-lifting rocket booster successfully launched a telecommunications satellite to cover North America.
FULL STORY
MISSION STATUS CENTER
LAUNCH EVENTS TIMELINE
GROUND TRACK MAP
ORBIT INSERTION GRAPHIC
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Friday:
June 6, 2003 | |
0001 GMT |
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Test postponed because of weather conditions
Stormy weather in Texas forced the Columbia Accident Investigation Board to delay a critical test designed to find out whether foam debris could have caused the kind of wing leading edge damage that doomed the shuttle and its crew during re-entry.
FULL STORY
EARLIER STORY
STS-107 STORY DIRECTORY
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NASA's Mars Exploration Rover to launch Sunday
Building on past successes -- and learning from embarrassing failures -- NASA is poised to jump start its Mars exploration program by sending a pair of "monster truck" rovers to the Red Planet in an $800 million mission to search for clues about what happened to the water than once carved the martian surface. The first rover is poised for liftoff at 2:06 p.m. EDT Sunday from Cape Canaveral.
MISSION STATUS CENTER
MARS ROVER PREVIEW STORY
STORY ON ROVERS' DESCENT AND LANDING
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Thermal data from Odyssey reveals a changing Mars
The first overview analysis of a year's worth of high-resolution infrared data gathered by the Thermal Emission Imaging System on NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft is opening Mars to a new kind of detailed geological analysis and revealing a dynamic planet that has experienced dramatic environmental change.
FULL STORY
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Clamps away: Mars Express eases its grip on its lander
Mars Express engineers breathed a sigh of relief Thursday morning at the European Space Operations Centre, in Germany. If a particularly delicate operation had not proceeded as planned, it would have been impossible to deploy the Beagle 2 lander on arrival at Mars.
FULL STORY
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Russian rocket to launch U.S. communications craft
Hoping the third time is the charm, a Russian Proton rocket is standing on its Baikonur Cosmodrome pad for a commercial satellite launch that has been delayed since April by technical problems. Liftoff is scheduled for 2215 GMT (6:15 p.m. EDT) on Friday.
MISSION STATUS CENTER
LAUNCH EVENTS TIMELINE
GROUND TRACK MAP
ORBIT INSERTION GRAPHIC
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Thursday:
June 5, 2003 | |
0001 GMT |
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Critical foam impact test planned for Thursday
Computer analysis and the results of a dramatic test last week indicate a critical experiment on tap Thursday may help investigators determine, to the satisfaction of most, that a foam strike during the shuttle Columbia's launching was the initiating event that led to the ship's destruction.
FULL STORY
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Japanese space probe headed to Mars rendezvous
As other nations launch their stake in this year's wave of Mars exploration, Japan has its own mission that is chugging toward the Red Planet despite encountering a rocky journey.
FULL STORY
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Launch date established for NASA's Mars rover
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover-A has been cleared for launch Sunday at 2:05:55 p.m. EDT (1805:55 GMT) following the Flight Readiness Review held Wednesday morning. The only worry now is the weather forecast, which predicts a 60 percent chance of unfavorable conditions.
MISSION STATUS CENTER
LAUNCH WINDOWS CHART
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Wednesday:
June 4, 2003 | |
0124 GMT |
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Another Jovian moon found
So far this year, Jupiter has gained 21 new distant satellites, with the most recent announcement of satellite S/2003 J 21 on Tuesday at the annual Canadian Astronomical Society meeting in Waterloo. This puts Jupiter far ahead of the all other planets, with 61 known moons.
FULL STORY
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'RAVE' seeking to reveal Galaxy's history
Clues to how galaxies formed in the early Universe lie right under our nose -- in our own Galaxy. The Galaxy formed by the accretion of infalling satellite galaxies, many astronomers think. Theoretical models of the formation of galaxies predict such a scenario. But not all astronomers are convinced yet and the topic is still controversial.
FULL STORY
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No final decision yet on launch date for Mars rover
NASA has put off making the final decision, which had been expected Tuesday, of when to launch the Mars Exploration Rover-A. For now, workers continue to prepare for liftoff on Sunday.
MISSION STATUS CENTER
EARLIER STORY
LAUNCH WINDOWS CHART
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Tuesday:
June 3, 2003 | |
0001 GMT |
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'Razor-sharp image' of star cluster snapped from Earth
A razor-sharp image was released Monday revealing new details at the heart of a famous star cluster. The thousands of swarming stars at the cluster's core were made visible by an innovative adaptive optics system called Altair that is currently being commissioned on the Frederick C. Gillett Gemini Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii.
FULL STORY
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NASA opens applications for new astronaut class
NASA is accepting applications for mission specialist and pilot astronaut candidates to join the 2004 Astronaut Candidate Class.
FULL STORY
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Monday:
June 2, 2003 | |
2030 GMT |
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Europe's first adventure to Mars successfully launched
Kicking off a string of Mars launches this month, a Russian Soyuz booster did its job Monday as it placed the first European mission to the Red Planet onto the path that will see it arrive late this year amidst a flurry of international science missions.
FULL STORY
MISSION STATUS CENTER
MARS EXPRESS PREVIEW STORY
BEAGLE 2 OVERVIEW STORY
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Video coverage for subscribers only:
VIDEO: SOYUZ ROCKET LIFTS OFF WITH MARS EXPRESS QT
VIDEO: CLOSE-UP VIEW OF ROCKET BLASTING OFF QT
VIDEO: COMMENTS FROM DIR. OF ESA SCIENCE PROGRAMS QT
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