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Sunday:
February 1, 2004 | |
1931 GMT |
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Comm Check...The Final Flight of Shuttle Columbia
Columbia and seven astronauts were lost one year ago Sunday as the shuttle disintegrated above Texas just minutes from touchdown. Respected aerospace journalists Michael Cabbage and William Harwood have written a book on the Columbia tragedy. You can read an excerpt here:
 CHAPTER ONE
MISSION COVERAGE ARCHIVE
OUR JOURNAL FROM FEB. 1, 2003
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Opportunity finds what it went to Mars looking for
With the pop of a champagne cork, a scientist announced Saturday that the Mars rover Opportunity has found scattered across the landing site a mineral that typically forms in water.
FULL STORY
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Saturday:
January 31, 2004 | |
1401 GMT |
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Opportunity rover a true Marsmobile
The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity successfully drove off its lander base Saturday, reaching the Red Planet's surface two days ahead of schedule. The craft will spend a few days examining the soil before rolling to the bedrock outcrop nearby.
FULL STORY
DRIVE OFF MOVED UP
PREVIEW STORY
ROVER DRIVE IMAGES:
OPPORTUNITY'S VIEW LOOKING AT LANDER
FORWARD-LOOKING VIEW FROM OPPORTUNITY
VIEW FROM CAMERA MAST ASSEMBLY
THE LANDER AS SEEN IN 3-D
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Video coverage for subscribers only:
VIDEO: MISSION CONTROL SENDS COMMAND FOR THE DRIVE QT
VIDEO: OPPORTUNITY'S DRIVE OFF LANDER IS CONFIRMED QT
VIDEO: IMAGES RECEIVED FROM ROVER SHOWING EMPTY LANDER QT
VIDEO: SATURDAY'S POST-DRIVE NEWS CONFERENCE QT
VIDEO: HEMATITE MINERAL FOUND AT LANDING SITE QT
VIDEO: 3-D MODEL OF OPPORTUNITY'S LANDING SITE CRATER QT
VIDEO: FRIDAY'S ROVER STATUS AND SCIENCE NEWS CONFERENCE QT
VIDEO: OPPORTUNITY STAND UP & WHEEL DEPLOY W/NARRATION QT
VIDEO: ALL THE IMAGES RELEASED WEDNESDAY WITH NARRATION QT
VIDEO:
COMPARE VIKING, PATHFINDER & ROVER LANDING SITES QT
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Cargo freighter docks to International Space Station
A Russian Progress resupply vessel made a successful automated docking with the International Space Station at 8:13 a.m. EST Saturday, linking up with the Zvezda service module's aft port while flying above Central Asia. The ship is loaded with food, fuel, equipment and experiments.
EARLIER STORY
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Chandra finds that star has the right stuff
Astronomers have used an observation by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to make the best case yet that a star can be engulfed by its companion star and survive. This discovery will help astronomers better understand how closely coupled stars, and perhaps even stars and planets, evolve when one of the stars expands enormously in its red giant phase.
FULL STORY
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Friday:
January 30, 2004 | |
0311 GMT |
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Opportunity could drive off lander base Saturday night
Launched to Mars folded and crouched in its landing cocoon, NASA's Opportunity rover has nearly completed the complex blossoming into a road-ready vehicle and could take its first drive onto the Red Planet's surface Saturday night.
FULL STORY
MISSION STATUS CENTER - updates!
PREVIOUS COVERAGE
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Video coverage for subscribers only:
VIDEO: OPPORTUNITY STAND UP & WHEEL DEPLOY W/NARRATION QT
VIDEO: ALL THE IMAGES RELEASED WEDNESDAY WITH NARRATION QT
VIDEO:
COMPARE VIKING, PATHFINDER & ROVER LANDING SITES QT
SUBSCRIBE NOW
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Fitful young star sputters to maturity in Rosette Nebula
A duo of Chinese and American astronomers have discovered a young star in the fierce environs of the Rosette Nebula that is ejecting a complex jet of material riddled with knots and bow shocks.
FULL STORY
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Satellites help improve ocean condition forecasts
Freighters, cruise lines, marine rescuers and coastal managers are among those who could benefit from prototype three-dimensional, three-day ocean condition forecasts created with the assistance of NASA satellite data, computer models and on-site ocean measurements.
FULL STORY
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Thursday:
January 29, 2004 | |
1248 GMT |
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Russians launch resupply ship to space station
A load of vital supplies and parts for the International Space Station was successfully dispatched from Earth Thursday, blasting off aboard an unmanned Russian Soyuz rocket. Docking with the station is scheduled for Saturday.
FULL STORY
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Recovering Spirit sends a new picture to controllers
Working as space-age surgeons 100 million miles away, ground controllers are trying to precisely pinpoint the software glitch that halted the Mars rover Spirit's mission to explore Gusev Crater last Wednesday. If successful, officials say the robot geologist could be out of recovery and back at work early next week.
FULL STORY
MISSION STATUS CENTER - updates!
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Video coverage for subscribers only:
VIDEO: WEDNESDAY'S MARS ROVER STATUS NEWS CONFERENCE QT
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Shuttle Challenger crew memorialized on Mars
NASA has announced plans to name the landing site of the Mars Opportunity rover in honor of the space shuttle Challenger's final crew. The area in the vast flatland called Meridiani Planum, where Opportunity landed this weekend, will be called the Challenger Memorial Station.
READ ANNOUNCEMENT
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Video coverage for subscribers only:
VIDEO: OPPORTUNITY STAND UP & WHEEL DEPLOY W/NARRATION QT
VIDEO: ALL THE IMAGES RELEASED WEDNESDAY WITH NARRATION QT
VIDEO:
COMPARE VIKING, PATHFINDER & ROVER LANDING SITES QT
SUBSCRIBE NOW
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Wednesday:
January 28, 2004 | |
0722 GMT |
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18 years after Challenger
On a bitterly cold January morning 18 years ago, space shuttle Challenger and her seven-member crew made a fateful voyage into history. Spaceflight Now marks Wednesday's anniversary with a comprehensive timeline of the events of that day.
CHALLENGER TIMELINE
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Opportunity rover set for 'coolest geologic field trip'
The discovery of layered rocks in the Martian bedrock next to the Opportunity's landing platform has scientists anxiously awaiting the rover's exploration of the terrain beginning next week.
FULL STORY
DOWNLOAD: THE FULL IMAGE
DOWNLOAD: 3-D VERSION OF ROCK OUTCROP
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Video coverage for subscribers only:
VIDEO: EXPERT NARRATION OF THE LAYERED ROCKS DISCOVERED QT
VIDEO: TUESDAY'S MARS ROVER STATUS AND SCIENCE BRIEFING QT
MORE: PREVIOUS MISSION COVERAGE!
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Martian landmarks dedicated to Apollo 1 crew
NASA memorialized the Apollo 1 crew - Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee - by dedicating the hills surrounding the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's landing site to the astronauts. The crew of Apollo 1 perished in flash fire during a launch pad test of their Apollo spacecraft 37 years ago Tuesday.
READ ANNOUNCEMENT
DOWNLOAD: PANORAMA SHOWING HILLS
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Tuesday:
January 27, 2004 | |
0625 GMT |
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Reconstructing Spirit's hopeful road to recovery
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit appeared to be teetering on the brink of failure last week when ground controllers lost contact with the craft sitting in Gusev Crater, its arm extended to a rock as the scientific adventure was beginning. Now, engineers are cautiously hopeful that Spirit will soon be restored to full working order.
FULL STORY
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Latest color postcard from Opportunity rover received
New color imagery was released by scientists Monday showing the Opportunity rover sitting in a small crater. There are rock outcrops dispersed throughout the crater and the soil appears to be a mixture of coarse gray grains and fine reddish grains.
MISSION STATUS CENTER - updates!
DOWNLOAD: THE FULL IMAGE
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Video coverage for subscribers only:
VIDEO: EXPLORE THE NEW COLOR POSTCARD WITH NARRATION QT
VIDEO: MONDAY'S OPPORTUNITY IMAGE & SPIRIT STATUS BRIEFING QT
SUBSCRIBE NOW
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X-ray shout echoing through space
The European Space Agency's X-ray observatory, XMM-Newton, has imaged a spectacular set of rings which appear to expand, with a speed a thousand times faster than that of light, around the point in the sky where a powerful gamma-ray explosion took place in early December.
FULL STORY
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Massive old star reveals secrets on deathbed
Like a doctor trying to understand an elderly patient's sudden demise, astronomers have obtained the most detailed observations ever of an old but otherwise normal massive star just before and after its life ended in a spectacular supernova explosion.
FULL STORY
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Monday:
January 26, 2004 | |
1605 GMT |
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Opportunity achieves 'interplanetary hole in one'
After a seven-month voyage spanning 300 million miles from Earth to Mars, the Opportunity rover ended up inside a tiny crater to the utter delight of mission scientists.
FULL STORY
MISSION STATUS CENTER - live updates!
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Video coverage for subscribers only:
VIDEO: DESCENT CAMERA IMAGERY WITH EXPERT NARRATION QT
VIDEO: SCIENTIST DESCRIBES LANDSCAPE AROUND OPPORTUNITY QT
VIDEO: SUNDAY P.M. SPIRIT & OPPORTUNITY NEWS BRIEFING QT
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Bogged down software could explain Spirit ailment
The group working to unravel the glitch with Spirit and return the rover to action has narrowed the possible cause of its trouble to three potentials, officials said Sunday afternoon.
FULL STORY
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British Beagle 2 lander still failing to call from Mars
The latest round of attempts to establish communications with the British Beagle 2 lander has turned up only silence. The craft was headed for the surface of Mars on Christmas Day but has never phoned home, leaving controllers mystified of the lander's ultimate fate.
MISSION STATUS CENTER
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