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Sunday:
June 20, 2004 | |
0115 GMT |
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Stormy weather delays Delta launch to Sunday
If Mother Nature cooperates, another attempt at launching the Global Positioning System 2R-12 satellite atop a Boeing Delta 2 rocket will be made Sunday evening at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Saturday's countdown was scrubbed by stormy weather.
 MISSION STATUS CENTER - updates!
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Photo gallery: Mobile Service Tower rollback
This collection of photos shows the mobile service tower being rolled away from the Delta 2 rocket Saturday. The picture gallery includes shots of a commemorative sign on the pad umbilical tower dedicating this launch to President Reagan.
OPEN GALLERY
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SpaceShipOne to launch Monday over California
Scaled Composites, the aerospace company run by legendary designer Burt Rutan, will attempt the first manned suborbital flight of its SpaceShipOne vehicle on Monday. Takeoff of the carrier jet from the Mojave runway is scheduled for 1330 GMT (9:30 a.m. EDT), with launch of the SpaceShipOne expected an hour later. We will have a mission preview report Sunday and live updates on Monday.
EARLIER STORY
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Scientists ask if comets once flooded Earth's oceans
Did the Earth form with water locked into its rocks, which then gradually leaked out over millions of years? Or did the occasional impacting comet provide Earthıs oceans? The Ptolemy experiment on Europe's Rosetta comet probe may just find out.
FULL STORY
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Saturday:
June 19, 2004 | |
0435 GMT |
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Delta 2 rocket to launch GPS craft on Saturday
A Boeing Delta 2 rocket is poised to launch a replacement satellite for the U.S. military's Global Positioning System navigation network on Saturday evening from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The available launch window extends from 7:10 to 7:37 p.m. EDT (2310-2337 GMT). Weather forecasters are calling for good conditions.
MISSION STATUS CENTER - updates!
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'Blazar' illuminates era when stars, galaxies formed
Astrophysicists at Stanford report spotting a black hole so massive that it's more than 10 billion times the mass of our sun. More important, this heavyweight is so far away that the scientists think it formed when the universe first began to light up with stars and galaxies, so it may provide a window into our cosmological origins.
FULL STORY
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Saturn in infrared
Saturn's bright equatorial band displays an exquisite swirl near the planet's eastern limb. This image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft's narrow angle camera from a distance of 14.5 million miles from Saturn.
FULL STORY
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Friday:
June 18, 2004 | |
0401 GMT |
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Cassini maneuver sets stage for Saturn arrival
The Saturn-bound Cassini spacecraft's main engine fired for 38 seconds Wednesday, slowing the vehicle by about 8 mph and putting it on course for Saturn orbit insertion the night of June 30, project officials said.
FULL STORY
CASSINI MISSION REPORT
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Stardust reveals surprising anatomy of a comet
Findings from a historic encounter between NASA's Stardust spacecraft and a comet have revealed a much stranger world than previously believed. The comet's rigid surface, dotted with towering pinnacles, plunging craters, steep cliffs, and dozens of jets spewing violently, has surprised scientists.
FULL STORY
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Comet's dust clouds hit probe 'like thunderbolt'
Two swarms of microscopic cometary dust blasted NASA's Stardust spacecraft in short but intense bursts as it approached within 150 miles of Comet Wild 2 last January, data from a University of Chicago instrument flying aboard the spacecraft has revealed.
FULL STORY
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Additional coverage for subscribers:
VIDEO:
NEW FINDINGS FROM STARDUST MISSION ANNNOUNCED QT
VIDEO:
STARDUST'S PICTURES OF COMET WITH NARRATION QT
VIDEO:
NARRATED ANIMATION SHOWS COMET ENCOUNTER QT
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Thursday:
June 17, 2004 | |
1005 GMT |
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Sweeping changes needed for moon-Mars initiative
To successfully send humans back to the moon and eventually on to Mars, NASA must implement sweeping cultural changes, transforming itself into a leaner, more innovative agency that relies much more heavily on private industry and international cooperation, a presidential panel reported Wednesday.
FULL STORY
DOWNLOAD COMMISSION REPORT (PDF file)
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Additional coverage for subscribers:
VIDEO:
COMMISSION HOLDS NEWS CONFERENCE IN WASHINGTON QT
VIDEO:
NASA WORKERS ASK QUESTIONS TO O'KEEFE AND ALDRIDGE QT
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Earth has 'blueberries' just like the Mars rover found
Even before marble-shaped pebbles nicknamed "blueberries" were discovered on Mars by the Opportunity rover, University of Utah geologists studied similar rocks in Utah's national parks and predicted such stones would be found on the Red Planet.
FULL STORY
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Powerful broadcasting satellite goes into orbit
Global communications satellite operator Intelsat, which will mark its 40th anniversary later this year, used a Russian Proton M rocket to launch its largest and most powerful spacecraft Wednesday night from the historic Baikonur Cosmodrome.
FULL STORY
MISSION STATUS CENTER
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Additional coverage for subscribers:
VIDEO:
PROTON ROCKET LIFTS OFF WITH INTELSAT 10-02 QT
VIDEO:
THE PROTON ROCKET IS ROLLED TO THE LAUNCH PAD QT
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Delta rocket launch for GPS postponed again
The NAVSTAR Global Positioning System 2R-12 satellite launch using the Boeing Delta 2 rocket has been postponed to Saturday. The launch window will extend from 7:10 to 7:37 p.m. EDT (2310-2337 GMT).
MISSION STATUS CENTER - updates!
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Wednesday:
June 16, 2004 | |
0001 GMT |
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Spirit, showing signs of old age, reaches Columbia hills
After five months on the frigid surface of Mars, one of NASA's hardy rovers is finally beginning to succumb to old age, developing a robotic form of arthritis that could limit its ability to climb steep slopes, officials said Tuesday.
FULL STORY
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Additional coverage for subscribers:
VIDEO:
RIDE WITH OPPORTUNITY AS IT DRIVES INTO CRATER QT
VIDEO:
OPPORTUNITY'S NEW COLOR PANORAMA WITH NARRATION QT
VIDEO:
SPIRIT'S PANORAMA FROM BASE OF THE HILLS QT
VIDEO:
LATEST SPIRIT PICTURES WITH NARRATION QT
VIDEO:
WATCH TUESDAY'S MARS ROVER NEWS CONFERENCE QT
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Launch campaign for last Atlas 2AS continues
The final Lockheed Martin Atlas 2AS rocket passed its countdown dress rehearsal Tuesday as the technicians pumped super-cold fuel into the vehicle and practiced launch day scripts at Cape Canaveral's Complex 36.
MISSION STATUS CENTER
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Russian Proton rocket launch reset to Wednesday
One of the largest commercial communications satellites ever built is now scheduled for launch at 2227 GMT (6:27 p.m. EDT) Wednesday from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. Tuesday's planned launch attempt of the Intelsat 10-02 spacecraft aboard a Russian-made Proton rocket was scrubbed.
MISSION STATUS CENTER
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Saturn's swirl imaged
On its approach to Saturn orbit insertion, the narrow angle camera on the Cassini spacecraft snapped this image of a turbulent swirl in the high clouds of Saturn's atmosphere. The disturbance occurs in the southern edge of the equatorial band.
FULL STORY
CASSINI MISSION REPORT
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Tuesday:
June 15, 2004 | |
0457 GMT |
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Phoebe's surface gives scientists clues to its origin
Images collected during Cassini's close flyby of Saturn's moon, Phoebe, have yielded strong evidence that the tiny object may contain ice-rich material, overlain with a thin layer of darker material perhaps 300 to 500 meters (980 to 1,600 feet) thick.
FULL STORY
CASSINI MISSION REPORT
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Spitzer telescope reveals what Edwin Hubble missed
For centuries, biologists and paleontologists have classified animal species based solely on their appearance and anatomical differences. Astronomers do the same thing when they look at photographs and classify galaxies into the elliptical, lenticular, spiral, and irregular classes.
FULL STORY
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Russian rocket to launch Intelsat craft Tuesday
One of the largest commercial communications satellites ever built will ride a Russian-made Proton rocket into an orbit high above Earth Tuesday. Liftoff is scheduled for 2227 GMT (6:27 p.m. EDT) from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.
FULL STORY
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IN OTHER NEWS Additional stories making news today
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Erickson takes rover reins as Cook joins 2009 mission -- At NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., Jim Erickson becomes project manager for the Mars Exploration Rover Project as his predecessor, Richard Cook, switches to the development of an even more capable Mars rover for launch in 2009.
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Monday:
June 14, 2004 | |
1705 GMT |
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Saturn's moon Phoebe revealed in stunning detail
Extraordinary new images taken by the Cassini spacecraft during its close encounter with Saturn's mysterious moon Phoebe were released by scientists Sunday. The must-see pictures show in great detail the cratered surface of the tiny moon.
FULL STORY
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GPS launch aboard Delta rocket delayed once again
Officials are now looking at a potential Friday attempt to launch the Delta 2 rocket with the GPS 2R-12 spacecraft from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The mission has been delayed several times due to technical issues.
MISSION STATUS CENTER - updates!
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Jupiter's moon Io is hottest body outside the sun
The hottest spot in the solar system is neither Mercury, Venus, nor St. Louis in the summer. Io, one of the four satellites that the Italian astronomer Galileo discovered orbiting Jupiter almost 400 years ago, takes that prize.
FULL STORY
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Scientist present new findings from the Stardust spacecraft's encounter with Comet Wild 2 in this news conference from NASA Headquarters on June 17. (26min 12sec file)
New pictures of Comet Wild 2 from NASA's Stardust spacecraft are shown here with narration by lead mission scientist Donald Brownlee. (3min 06sec file)
Animation depicting Stardust's flyby of Comet Wild 2 and the powerful jets of dust streaming from the comet's surface is presented with narration by scientist Benton Clark. (1min 59sec file)
Mars rover Spirit's arrival at the Columbia Hills, trouble with one of its wheels and Opportunity's descent into Endurance Crater and all of the latest pictures are presented at this briefing from June 15. (30min 27sec file)
Cameras on Opportunity provides this "ride-along" view of the rover's risky drive into Endurance Crater. Expert narration by science team member Scott McLennan. (30sec file)
Another stunning color panorama from the Mars rover Opportunity looking into Endurance Crater and the surrounding plains is presented with expert narration by science team member Scott McLennan. (1min 30sec file)
Spirit has generated this panorama from the base of the Columbia Hills. Expert narration is provided by science team member Larry Soderblom. (1min 15sec file)
New pictures from Mars rover Spirit showing the "Pot of Gold" rock area and other features are revealed with expert narration by science team member Larry Soderblom. (4min 47sec file)
A full-scale space shuttle solid rocket booster is fired in Utah to conduct 76 test objectives, including a modification that slightly changes the shape of the propellant in a segment of the motor.
Space shuttle Columbia lands at 8:39 a.m. local time June 14, 1991 on Runway 22 at Edwards Air Force Base, California, capping a successful 9-day medical research flight featuring the Spacelab Life Sciences laboratory module on mission STS-40. (3min 28sec file)