Spaceflight Now

Sunday: December 15, 2002		0440 GMT

Countdown underway for today's Titan 2 launch A combo satellite that carries instruments to precisely measure ocean winds on Earth and approaching geomagnetic storms from the Sun will ride a refurbished U.S. Titan 2 missile into orbit today from California, weather permitting. Liftoff is set for 1418 GMT (9:18 a.m. EST). MISSION STATUS CENTER - [updated]

NEAR Shoemaker's silent treatment Even though the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft had exceeded every mission expectation, the NEAR team asked for one more spectacular addition to the mission's legacy: Talk to us one more time. FULL STORY

NASA develops new design process for future craft An efficient, timely, revolutionary process, developed by NASA, may help design the next generation of space vehicles. Engineers are using the Virtual Flight Rapid Integration Test Environment to develop and evaluate vehicle designs that may eventually ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station. FULL STORY

Saturday: December 14, 2002		0440 GMT

International observatory put into orbit to study Earth Japan's H-2A racked up its fourth success in as many launches with the orbital delivery of a satellite designed to keep an eye on our home planet. The advanced booster rocketed away from the Yoshinobu launch complex and into the partly cloudy skies above Japan's Tanegashima Island at 0131 GMT Saturday (8:31 p.m. EST Friday). FULL STORY MISSION STATUS CENTER

Weather main concern for Sunday's Titan launch A combo satellite that carries instruments to precisely measure ocean winds on Earth and approaching geomagnetic storms from the Sun will ride a refurbished U.S. Titan 2 missile into orbit Sunday from California, weather permitting. MISSION STATUS CENTER - [updated]

Chandra reveals pileup on cosmic speedway Lobes of unexpectedly hot gas speeding away from a black hole in our galaxy have been discovered by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The high temperature and the distance of the lobes from the black hole indicate that violent collisions are occurring between clumps of gas expelled from the vicinity of the black hole. FULL STORY

Friday: December 13, 2002		0440 GMT

Ariane engine experienced 'major problem' The Ariane 5 rocket suffered major engine trouble before going out of control and exploding over the Atlantic Ocean during Wednesday's botched launch, Arianespace officials said Thursday. FULL STORY

Japan to launch environmental satellite A new Earth-watching satellite will be deployed by a Japanese H-2A rocket Friday night to begin a mission to comprehensively study large-scale environmental changes and trends. MISSION STATUS CENTER

Titan 2 poised to loft military's Coriolis craft A combo satellite that carries instruments to precisely measure ocean winds on Earth and approaching geomagnetic storms from the Sun will ride a refurbished U.S. Titan 2 missile into orbit Sunday from California, weather permitting. MISSION STATUS CENTER

Hubble watches galaxies in a destructive dance NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is witnessing a grouping of galaxies engaging in a slow dance of destruction that will last for billions of years. The galaxies are so tightly packed together that gravitational forces are beginning to rip stars from them and distort their shapes. FULL STORY

Morgan named to upcoming space shuttle mission In November 2003, nearly 18 years after the 1986 Challenger disaster, educator-astronaut Barbara Morgan will finally rocket into orbit to fulfill Christa McAuliffe's legacy as the first teacher in space. FULL STORY - updated! STS-118, 119 AND 120 CREWS ANNOUNCED

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Thursday: December 12, 2002		0347 GMT

New Ariane 5 fails Arianespace was hit by a massive setback Wednesday night when the upgraded Ariane 5 rocket failed minutes into its debut flight, plummeting into the Atlantic Ocean with two communications satellites aboard. FULL STORY MISSION STATUS CENTER

Engineers study cracked bearing in shuttle fuel line Engineers are studying the potential impact of a crack found in a cue ball-sized bearing inside a liquid oxygen feed line aboard the shuttle Discovery. At issue is what caused the crack, whether it represents a safety threat and whether or not it poses any sort of fleet-wide issue. FULL STORY

Morgan to be named to upcoming shuttle mission NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe plans to announce a new shuttle crew Thursday that will be commanded by Scott Kelly and include teacher-turned-astronaut Barbara Morgan, Christa McAuliffe's backup for the agency's original Teacher in Space program. FULL STORY

Japanese H-2A rocket to launch environmental craft Workers at Japan's Tanegashima space launch complex are busy readying an H-2A rocket for the program's fourth launch with an environmental satellite wrapped inside the nose cone. The H-2A rocket is scheduled to depart the planet at 0131 GMT Saturday (8:31 p.m. EST Friday). MISSION STATUS CENTER

Wednesday: December 11, 2002		0203 GMT

Dark streaks on Mars may signal active water Salty water driven by hot magma from Mars' deep interior may be forming some of the mysterious dark slope streaks visible near the Red Planet's equator, according to University of Arizona scientists. FULL STORY

The weathermen of Mars Researchers have discovered further evidence for the possible existence of a changing, and perhaps predictable, Martian climate. They have used data gathered from February through November 2002 by the Neutron Spectrometer subsystem aboard NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft. FULL STORY

Station spacewalk delayed due to medical issue A planned spacewalk Thursday by new space station commander Kenneth Bowersox and flight engineer Nikolai Budarin has been postponed until January because of a potential medical issue involving one of the lab's crew members. FULL STORY

Ariane 5 set for another launch attempt Wednesday After aborting a November 28 countdown moments before engine ignition because of ground system trouble, Arianespace plans to try again Wednesday to launch the Ariane 5 rocket with the new cryogenic upper stage. The launch time is 2222 GMT (5:22 p.m. EST). MISSION STATUS CENTER

Tuesday: December 10, 2002		1400 GMT

Featherweight Jovian moon is likely a jumble of pieces NASA's Galileo spacecraft continues to deliver surprises. Galileo's seven-year run continued with the discovery that Jupiter's potato-shaped inner moon, named Amalthea, appears to have a very low density, indicating it is full of holes. FULL STORY

Stranded communications satellite deorbited The European Astra 1K spacecraft plunged into the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean Monday night where it was destroyed. The Alcatel-built satellite -- the most massive commercial communications craft ever flown -- was doomed to a low-Earth orbit after an ill-fated launch November 25 when the upper stage of a Russian Proton rocket malfunctioned.

Research offers explanation for Earth's bulging waistline A team of researchers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Royal Observatory of Belgium has apparently solved a recently observed mystery regarding changes to the physical shape of Earth and its gravity field. The answer, they found, appears to lie in the melting of sub-polar glaciers and mass shifts in the Southern, Pacific and Indian Oceans associated with global-scale climate changes. FULL STORY

NASA's first gravity mission image depicts a bumpy ride The first image released from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (Grace), a joint NASA-German Aerospace Center mission, graphically illustrates the sensitivity of the mission's twin spacecraft to changes in Earth's gravity. FULL STORY

NASA buys '19-pack' of Boeing Delta 2 rockets NASA has chosen the Delta 2 expendable launch vehicle, provided by Boeing Launch Services, Inc. to launch 19 NASA and NASA-sponsored medium-class scientific payloads between 2006 and early 2009. FULL STORY

Columbia moves closer to planned January launch Two days after Endeavour returned from orbit, space shuttle Columbia made the 3.5-mile trek from Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building to launch pad 39A Monday. Departure from the 52-story building occurred at 7:30 a.m. EST and arrival at the seaside pad followed six hours and 20 minutes later. Liftoff is scheduled for January 16 on a 16-day microgravity research mission.

Monday: December 9, 2002		0137 GMT

Space station crew in 'good shape' after landing The returning crew of the international space station - Expedition 5 commander Valery Korzun, flight engineer Sergei Treschev and science officer Peggy Whitson - appears to be in good shape following their return to Earth Saturday after six months in weightlessness. FULL STORY

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NASA's revealing Odyssey The latest observations from NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft, highlighting water ice distribution and infrared images of the Red Planet's surface, are being released this week at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. FULL STORY

News Archive
Dec. 2-8: Endeavour shuttles station residents back to Earth; Hubble precisely measures distant planet's true mass; NASA communications relay craft rides Atlas into space; Saturn's moon Titan may hold clues to origin of life; Double bubble in neighboring galaxy.

Nov. 25-Dec. 1: Russian Proton mission fails; Go for a ride on Endeavour; New station crew takes over; Station grows with addition of another truss; Ariane 5 launch aborted.

Nov. 18-24: Boeing's Delta 4 rocket debuts successfully; Endeavour launches to continue building station; Fast-flying black hole yields clues to supernova origin; Two supermassive black holes found in same galaxy.

Nov. 11-17: Boeing delays debut launch of Delta 4 rocket; Endeavour launch delayed by oxygen leak, robot arm accident; Exceptionally bright eruption on Jovian moon Io; New evidence for dark energy in the Universe; Black hole at Milky Way's center is on starvation diet.

More news See our weekly archive of space news.

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