Water on the Space Station NASA Science News for November 2, 2000 Rationing and recycling will be an essential part of life on the newly-populated International Space Station. In this article, the first of a series about the challenges of living in orbit, Science@NASA explores where the crew will get their water and how they will (re)use it. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast02nov_1.htm?list89800

They picked the callsign "alpha" in a jublilant video conference to Mission HQ. It's the beginning of man in space for perhaps the rest of history, there may never be a time when man is not in space from now on.

Much Ado about 2000 SG344 NASA Science News for November 7, 2000 Later this century a relic from NASA's earliest space exploration efforts might return to Earth, if current estimates are confirmed. The near-Earth object, which follows an orbit almost identical to our planet's, looks like an asteroid but may be an Apollo-era rocket booster. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast06nov_2.htm?list89800

Space Weather News for Nov. 9, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com RADIATION STORM: High-energy particles are bombarding satellites this morning after a solar eruption unleashed a strong radiation storm. Radio blackouts and minor satellite glitches are possible while the storm persists. NEAR-EARTH ASTEROID 2000 UG11: A 250-meter asteroid zoomed past Earth on Tuesday just 6 times farther from our planet than the Moon. New video clips show the space rock racing through the sky on Nov. 1st - 7th. AURORA BOREALIS: Geomagnetic storms on November 3rd and 6th triggered widespread aurora. Pictures of the Northern Lights are now available on SpaceWeather.com. For more information and images please visit http://www.spaceweather.com

Aurora Alert Space Weather News for Nov. 9, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com The Nov. 8th solar eruption that triggered an ongoing radiation storm around Earth also launched a coronal mass ejection (CME) that appears to be heading in the direction of our planet. The CME raced away from the Sun traveling faster than 2000 km/s and it could strike Earth's magnetosphere late Friday or Saturday. Forecasters estimate a 25% chance of severe geomagnetic storms at middle latitudes during the next 48 hours. Stay tuned to http://spaceweather.com for continuing coverage. Photographers who capture images of the aurora are invited to send them as email attachments to webmaster@spaceweather.com for display on SpaceWeather.com.

Breathing Easy on the Space Station NASA Science News for November 13, 2000 Life support systems on the International Space Station provide oxygen, absorb carbon dioxide, and manage vaporous emissions from the astronauts themselves. It's all part of breathing easy in our new home in space. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast13nov_1.htm?list89800

Wanted: Leonid Meteor Spotters Space Weather News for Nov. 15, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com The 2000 Leonid meteor shower is just around the corner. Forecasters expect at least two outbursts of shooting stars as Earth passes through debris from comet Tempel-Tuttle this Friday and Saturday. Spaceweather.com will post current meteor counts and reports from around the world beginning Thursday and continuing through the end of the shower. We invite all our readers to participate and report what they see. All you need are clear skies! Visit http://www.spaceweather.com for more information and observing tips. And don't forget NASA's live webcast of the Leonids from the stratosphere! Visit http://www.leonidslive.com for details.

Lighting Up the Ecosphere NASA Science News for Nov. 15, 2000 Using satellite images of city lights at night, NASA scientists are mapping the spread of urban areas around the globe and monitoring their impact on our planet's ecosystem. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast15nov_1.htm

Flowing Sand in Space NASA Science News for Nov. 17, 2000 NASA scientists are sending sand into Earth orbit to learn more about how soil behaves during earthquakes. Their results will help engineers build safer structures on Earth and someday on other planets, too. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast17nov_1.htm

A Solar Flare Stuns Stardust NASA Science News for November 22, 2000 Earlier this month one of the most intense solar radiation storms in decades temporarily blinded NASA's Stardust spacecraft, which is heading for a rendezvous with comet Wild-2. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast22nov_1.htm?list89800

Weekend Aurora Warning; Asteroid Toutatis Brightens Space Weather News for Nov. 24, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com SOLAR FLARES: This morning, two powerful solar flares triggered an ongoing radiation storm around Earth. The eruptions from a sunspot group near the center of the Sun's visible disk also launched two coronal mass ejections toward our planet. Sky watchers should be alert for aurora when the CMEs strike Earth's magnetosphere later this weekend. ASTEROIDS: Near-Earth asteroid Toutatis, which passed close to Earth on Halloween, is actually brightening as it moves away from our planet. Amateur astronomers can spot the space rock in 8- to 10-inch telescopes as it reaches peak brightness next week. For more information, visit http://www.SpaceWeather.com .

Microscopic Stowaways on the ISS NASA Science News for November 26, 2000 Wherever humans go microbes will surely follow, and the Space Station is no exception. In this article, NASA scientists discuss how astronauts on the ISS will keep potentially bothersome microorganisms under control. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast26nov_1.htm?list89800

That was pretty interesting. It shows that there is so much more think about than you first realise when going into space. I always thought it was a case of piling five guys into a rocket and shooting them up to an orbiting spacecan. I guess it's not that simple...

Nope, or we would have done it long ago... and a lot more guys would have died...

Sky show tonight: a close encounter between Venus and the Moon Space Weather News for Nov. 29, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com The recent spate of geomagnetic disturbances produced auroras mainly at high latitudes. Middle- and low-latitude observers didn't see much in the way of Northern Lights. But tonight there's a sky show that anyone can enjoy: a dazzling close encounter between Venus and the crescent Moon. Visit http://www.spaceweather.com for details about that and to view a gallery of pictures captured during this week's geomagnetic storms.

Far-out Housekeeping on the ISS NASA Science News for November 29, 2000 Life in space is a daring adventure, but somebody still has to cook dinner and take out the trash. Science@NASA interviews two astronauts about the thrill and routine of daily life in orbit. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast29nov_1.htm?list89800

The ham satellite (the big one the hams have been waiting for) is succesfully up! Any news on this Marci?

Oh, I forgot to mention, someone pointed out Jupiter to me when I was in Japan. Is it possible to see Jupiter with the naked eye??? I was unconvinced but secretly impressed :-)

Of course it is, Jupiter can be very visible.

Well I wasn't sure :-) Cool, I've seen Jupiter :-)

Get a cheap pair of binoculars, Mike - you can see the four Galillean moons easily. And, they change from night to night as you watch them orbit!!!

EO-1: It's not just a good idea, it's the law! NASA Science News for December 4, 2000 NASA's Earth Observing-1 satellite blasted off last week with a payload of new instruments that could revolutionize remote sensing. The work of the new satellite is regarded as so important it's actually required by law. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast04dec_1.htm?list89800

Sedimentary Mars NASA Science News for December 4, 2000 4:00:00 PM New Mars Global Surveyor images reveal sedimentary rock layers on the Red Planet that may have formed underwater in the distant martian past. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast04dec_2.htm?list89800

So, they're debating how much water may have been on Mars, and whether the liquid was water (probably), these sedimentary layers were found on the giant canyon that would stretch from NY to California. They should drop the next lander in this sediment!

..but only if they are sure it would be able to hear their commands. We lost the last one that way... I'd like a specimen for my collection, thank you!!! Santa,I have been naughty but soooo nice this year...

The best of both worlds, right? Which is more important, this sedimentary area or the ice cap areas where there may be water for a landing? And when is the next Mars launch?

I'll let you know when I know - stay tuned... A Disintegrating Glacier NASA Science News for December 6, 2000 Recent satellite images reveal two new icebergs floating off the Antarctic coast. The icy behemoths are fragments of the Ninnis Glacier. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast05dec_1.htm?list89800

Latest Mars updates are available at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/

Get a cheap pair of binoculars, Mike - you can see the four Galillean moons easily. And, they change from night to night as you watch them orbit!!! That is cool, Marcia!! When I was in school I dropped Astro so that I could concentrate on other stuff (like smashing rocks to pieces with hammers and blowing up alternate universes with Quantum singularities... :-) I should definitely start checking out the sky a bit more. Trouble is it means going outside at night when it's all cold. Still, I guess in the summer it could be a joint trip with one of my lady friends.... :-)

One of the brightest objects in the sky will be the space station with the solar panels unfurled. Has anyone seen this yet or does anyone know a website for times, dates to view it?

Terry, I posted the satellite tracking and spotting of ISS back a few... for all satellites: http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/RealTime/JTrack/ For ISS and such: http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/RealTime/JTrack/Spacecraft.html

Cool, I'll check it out, have you seen it yet?

ISS updates http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ops/stage4a/status.html This is Shuttle mission 97

Have not yet seeen it. The last time I looked I saw the space junk re-entry. That was REALLY neat!!! ISS seems to orbit so they are over Hawaii quite frequently, so I'll hunt again. Did see the Shuttle and MIR linked up - brilliant like Venus!!!

Pass the Can Opener, Please In early December engineers in Waco, Texas, will cut a hole big enough to drive a truck through in the aft fuselage of a 747SP jumbo jet. It's a key step in converting the airliner into the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), whose 2.5-meter (98-inch) telescope will peer at the heavens from an altitude of 41,000 feet beginning in 2003. A Yuletide Partial Solar Eclipse During the partial eclipse of the Sun on December 25, 2000, the Moon passes slightly north of the Sun's center as seen from nearly all parts of North America south of the Arctic Circle. A Passing Affair Cassini will pass 9.8 million km from Jupiter, en route to Saturn, on December 30th.

The Baffling Geminid Meteor Shower NASA Science News for December 8, 2000 Most meteor showers are caused by comets, but the Geminid meteor shower, which peaks next Wednesday morning, seems to come from a curious near-Earth asteroid. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast08dec_1.htm?list89800

Curious indeed!

Marcia, maybe Santa Claus will bring you that Martian rock for Christmas this year. Do you have a Lunar rock to go with it? Just kidding. On the disintergrating glazier, a few years ago an iceberg broke off the Anarctic Ice Shelf that was slightly smaller than the state of Rhode Island. Suffice to say, it was easily visible from space.

It's probably still afloat?

That, or fused into the polar ice sheet next winter....

NEWSALERT: Sunday, December 10, 2000 @ 0557 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, SHUTTLE DEPARTS STATION --------------------------------------------- With hugs and handshakes, the Endeavour astronauts bid farewell to the crew of space station Alpha Saturday, closed hatches between the two spacecraft and undocked to wind up an edge-of-the-seat mission to install a huge set of solar arrays. http://spaceflightnow.com/ops/stage4a/001209fd10/ Follow the mission's progress in our status center: http://spaceflightnow.com/ops/stage4a/status.html Watch video clip of shuttle crew departing station: http://spaceflightnow.com/ops/stage4a/video/001209farewell_qt.html FOUR ADDITIONAL MOONS DISCOVERED ORBITING SATURN ------------------------------------------------ An unprecedented surge in planetary moon discoveries continued this week as astronomers reported the discovery of four more moons orbiting Saturn, bringing the total number of moons found around the planet since October to ten. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/10saturnmoons/ DELAYED ARIANE 4 ROCKET LAUNCH RESET FOR MONDAY ----------------------------------------------- After a postponement to double-check the rocket's nose cone, Arianespace has rescheduled the flight of Ariane 4 launcher carrying the Eurasiasat 1 communications satellite for Monday evening from South America. http://spaceflightnow.com/ariane/v137/status.html

The Incredible Shrinking Ozone Hole NASA Science News for December 12, 2000 After reaching record-breaking proportions earlier this year the ozone hole over Antarctica has made a surprisingly hasty retreat. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast12dec_1.htm?list89800

Christmas Eclipse NASA Science News for December 14, 2000 A solar eclipse is coming on Christmas Day, 2000. The winter landscape across parts of North America will assume an eerie cast, and cooler-than-usual winds might swirl, as the New Moon glides across the face of the Yuletide Sun. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast15dec_1.htm?list89800

This Mars life story is *new*, as reported by MSNBC today. "Dec. 13 � A new scientific report offers compelling evidence that primitive life existed on Mars, NASA says. Researchers report that tiny magnetite crystals, identical to those used by aqueous bacteria on Earth as compasses to find food and energy, have been found in the Martian meteorite ALH84001."

Really nice!!!! Thank you Big Time for posting that image!

NEWSALERT: Friday, December 15, 2000 @ 1612 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now HUBBLE SEES SATELLITE FOOTPRINTS IN JUPITER AURORA -------------------------------------------------- Check out a spectacular Hubble Space Telescope close-up view of an electric-blue aurora that is eerily glowing one half billion miles away on the giant planet Jupiter. Auroras are curtains of light resulting from high-energy electrons racing along the planet's magnetic field into the upper atmosphere. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/15hubble/ UNIVERSE'S MOST MASSIVE SPIRAL GALAXY REVEALED ---------------------------------------------- The most massive spiral galaxy known so far in the Universe has been discovered by a team of astronomers. This galaxy is located at a distance of approximately 6 billion light-years and its measured mass is more than 1,000 billion times that of the Sun. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/15spiral/ TWIN TELESCOPES POISED TO EXPLORE STRUCTURE OF UNIVERSE ------------------------------------------------------- More than 300 people traveled thousands of miles to a remote mountaintop in Chile for the dedication of two of the most powerful survey instruments ever built: the Baade and the Clay 6.5-meter reflecting telescopes. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/15carnegie/

Weekend Aurora Watch Space Weather News for Dec. 14, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com A coronal mass ejection that left the Sun on Thursday appears to be heading for Earth. The disturbance could trigger aurora late Saturday or (more likely) Sunday when it strikes our planet's magnetosphere. For details and animations please visit http://www.spaceweather.com .

NEWSALERT: Saturday, December 16, 2000 @ 0520 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now CHINA PLEDGES DEVELOPMENT OF MANNED SPACE PROGRAM ------------------------------------------------- China is poised to launch the second test flight of its Shenzhou spacecraft -- an orbiter capable of carrying an astronaut into space -- a Chinese official said this week in his year-end press briefing in Washington. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/15china/ STATION CREW AWAITS SPARE PARTS FOR AIR SCRUBBER ------------------------------------------------ The international space station's air purification system is working smoothly, NASA's lead flight director said Friday. But unexpected equipment failures during the crew's first six weeks in space have left the astronauts just one failure away from a possible forced evacuation. http://spaceflightnow.com/ops/stage4a/001216scrubber/ KENNEDY SPACE CENTER CELEBRATES ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF 2000 ------------------------------------------------------- During the past year, NASA's Kennedy Space Center began an ambitious schedule of Space Shuttle launches as construction of the International Space Station shifted into high gear, plus managed six rocket launches and formed partnerships across the board. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/16ksc2000/

CHRISTMAS SOLAR ECLIPSE http://www.skypub.com/sights/eclipses/solar/001225partial.html

Learning from Lightning NASA Science News for December 17, 2000 Little by little, lightning sensors in space are revealing the inner workings of severe storms. Scientists hope to use the technique to improve forecasts of deadly weather. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast17dec_1.htm?list89800

Geomagnetic activity alert + near-Earth asteroid news Space Weather News for Dec. 19, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com METEORS & AURORA: Sky watchers who venture outside to view the Ursid meteor shower Thursday night or Friday morning might also spot aurora borealis. A coronal mass ejection that left the Sun on Monday is likely to buffet Earth's magnetosphere later this week. Forecasters estimate a 20% chance of severe geomagnetic activity when the CME arrives. NEAR-EARTH ASTEROIDS: A newly-discovered near-Earth asteroid, 2000 YA, will pass just two lunar distances from Earth on Dec. 22nd. There's no danger of a collision, say scientists, but the small space rock will be near enough to see through large amateur telescopes or through small telescopes equipped with CCD cameras. For more information, images and animations, please visit http://www.spaceweather.com

There was a very interesting piece this morning on NPR on the Saturn moon, Euuropa. It seems there may be water beneath the ice that may support life. Even though the sun's energy is very distant, there is some kind of gravitational tide effect from Saturn and other moons that may be enough to generate higher temperatures and enable liquids under the icy surface. There is some kind of underwater sub expedition planned by NASA in the next 10 years. This could be an exciting development, I haven't searched o the net yet, but I'm sure there's more out there on this, on NPR.org's site for sure.

Correction, substitute Jupiter for Saturn. Big detail. EUROPA & HOW LIFE BEGINS $ NPR's Richard Harris explores what it would take for life to begin elsewhere in the solar system. Pictures released yesterday of Jupiter's moon Europa suggest that the chemicals necessary for life may exist in large frozen oceans there -- just waiting for the right conditions to sprout life. On Earth, oceanographers think that life may have begun in a similar primordial soup at the bottom of the ocean. They're looking at unique heat-resistant organisms that live next to hot-gas vents on the ocean floor.

I posted that bit of info in Geo 24 - the astronomy topic update. Fascinating stuff! (...and we knew which planet you meant *hugs*)

Martian Micro-Magnets NASA Science News for December 20, 2000 Certain types of bacteria on Earth are atomic engineers -- atom by atom they build tiny magnetic crystals to help themselves follow our planet's magnetic field. Now scientists have found such crystals in an unlikely place: a martian meteorite! FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast20dec_1.htm?list89800

Watching the Angry Sun NASA Science News for December 22, 2000 As the Sun's stormy season approaches its zenith, solar scientists have the best seat in the house, using the largest coordinated fleet of spacecraft and ground observatories ever assembled to observe angry outbursts of solar radiation. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast22dec_1.htm?list89800

A meteor outburst, after all.... Space Weather News for Dec. 22, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com METEORS: Sky watchers in Europe and on the US west coast spotted a modest outburst of Ursid meteors Thursday night. Astronomers had hoped for a more impressive display, but the flurry of faint shooting stars was nevertheless welcomed because it confirmed a new model of cometary debris streams. AURORA WATCH: Conditions may be favorable for high-latitude auroras tonight. The interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) near Earth turned sharply southward after a solar wind disturbance arrived in the neighborhood of our planet. South-pointing IMFs make our magnetosphere more vulnerable than usual to solar wind gusts -- additional gusts could trigger Northern Lights. For more information visit http://www.spaceweather.com

NEWSALERT: Monday, December 25, 2000 @ 0050 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now AN OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD HOLIDAY GREETING ------------------------------------- The international space station crew offer the people of planet Earth greetings for the holiday season in a message from their orbiting home 235 miles up. The three men are the first residents of the new station, beginning what is planned to be a continuous human presence in space for the 21st century. Watch video message: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/video/001224greetings_qt.html Astronauts report first Santa sighting: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/video/001224santa_qt.html CARGO SHIP SET FOR REDOCKING TO SPACE STATION --------------------------------------------- Spaceflight Now will have complete live coverage of Tuesday's redocking of the Progress M1-4 cargo freighter to the international space station. Cosmonaut Yuri Gidzenko will manually guide the craft to the orbital linkup using two joysticks and a television picture. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html See our timeline of the redocking sequence: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/fdf/redocking.html RARE CHRISTMAS ECLIPSE VIEWABLE IN NORTH AMERICA ------------------------------------------------ On Christmas Day, step outside and get a rare Christmas present-a partial solar eclipse! Sky watchers living in the continental United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean will have a perfect view of the partially eclipsed Sun. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/24eclipse/ SANTA BECOMES TEST PILOT AT FLORIDA'S SHUTTLE LANDING SITE ---------------------------------------------------------- Not only does Santa Claus know when you are sleeping or awake -- bad or good, he also knows with pinpoint accuracy the exact location of each planned delivery stop. With newly-installed GPS on his sleigh, Santa plans to fly by the Kennedy Space Center to test his space-age equipment. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/24santaslf/ OBSERVATIONS CONFIRM THE UNIVERSE WAS HOTTER IN PAST ---------------------------------------------------- A fundamental prediction of the Big Bang theory has finally been verified. For the first time, an actual measurement has been made of the temperature of the cosmic microwave background radiation, at a time when the Universe was only about 2.5 billion years old. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/24vlthot/ SCIENTISTS DELIGHTED BY FIRST IMAGES FROM EO-1 SATELLITE -------------------------------------------------------- Scientists have seen the first images from NASA's Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) spacecraft launched last month and now flying in formation with the Landsat 7 satellite. Researchers say they are excited with the performance of the instruments on the EO-1 technology demonstrator. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/23eo1first/ SPACEHAB RESEARCH MODULE TO FLY ON '02 SHUTTLE MISSION ------------------------------------------------------ A commercial Spacehab Research Double Module will be flown aboard a space shuttle in 2002 for a NASA science flight. Spacehab is marketing a portion of space in the module to commercial users, including other national space agencies. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/23sts112/

too bad it's rainy here, we won't be able to witness the christmas eclipse *frown*

check in Geo 24 for my ex's Pennsylvania shots.

did, thanks sweetie! *HUGS*

Merry Christmas Dear - and *Happy Hugs* to go with it. What was your surprise??? (We need to talk, I think)

yes--did you get my msn invite? (for IM?)

nope!!! I'll send you one!!! I had this problem with B earlier.

Wolfie, I was in up in your 'hood yesterday, Shey and I went to Tyler to see mjy dad, but we had a short visit as we were trying to get home before any of the heavy weather predicted for today.

NEWSALERT: Tuesday, December 26, 2000 @ 1510 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now BRIEF LOSS OF CONTACT RAISES FEARS ABOUT MIR STATION ----------------------------------------------------- Contact with the unmanned Russian Mir space station was briefly lost today. While normal communications later were restored, the incident heightened concern about the Russians' ability to precisely control the abandoned station's upcoming re-entry and breakup. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/26mir/ CARGO SHIP REDOCKS TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION ------------------------------------------------- Cosmonaut Yuri Gidzenko remotely piloted an unmanned Progress supply ship to a trouble-free manual redocking with the international space station today as the two spacecraft sailed 230 miles above Mongolia. Includes video clips. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/001226redock/ OCEAN-HARBORING MOON GANYMEDE SEEN BY CASSINI --------------------------------------------- The solar system's largest moon, Ganymede, is captured here alongside the planet Jupiter in a color picture taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft earlier this month at a distance of 16.5 million miles. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/26cassgany/ LAUNCH SCHEDULE --------------- See our Tracking Station for a the latest listing of upcoming space launches for the New Year. http://spaceflightnow.com/tracking/

Solar Eclipse Pictures Space Weather News for Dec. 26, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com If bad weather, over-sleeping, or simply not living in North America prevented you from seeing the Christmas 2000 solar eclipse, now you have a second chance. The SpaceWeather.com eclipse gallery features dozens of images captured by sky watchers using everything from professional hydrogen-alpha telescopes (that show sunspots and solar filaments) to makeshift solar filters assembled from computer CDs. Visit http://spaceweather.com for more...

NEWSALERT: Saturday, December 30, 2000 @ 0505 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now CASSINI HAS CLOSE ENCOUNTER OF THE JOVIAN KIND TODAY ---------------------------------------------------- NASA's Cassini space probe makes its 6-million mile flyby of Jupiter today at 1012 GMT (5:12 a.m. EST). The encounter acts as a gravity-assisted sling-shot, boosting the craft's speed by 2,500 mph to over 30,000 mph for its continued trek to Saturn. We'll have a wrap up story following a news conference later today. http://spaceflightnow.com/cassini/ CASSINI EYES JUPITER'S CLOUDS IN GREAT DETAIL --------------------------------------------- Images taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft using three different filters reveal cloud structures and movements at different depths in the atmosphere around Jupiter's south pole. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/30cassclouds/ HEAVY DOSE OF RADIATION CAUSES GALILEO GLITCHES ----------------------------------------------- NASA's Galileo spacecraft passed through the highest radiation environment it will experience in its current orbit of Jupiter late Thursday. The exposure caused an alarm from the probe's camera system and a computer reset in another portion of the spacecraft. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/30galileorad/ SPACE STATION RESIDENTS GIVE NEW YEAR'S MESSAGE ----------------------------------------------- The Alpha astronauts beamed down New Year's greetings Friday, saying "let the real space odyssey 2001 proceed." Commander William Shepherd, flight engineer Sergei Krikalev and Soyuz pilot Yuri Gidzenko fielded questions from reporters in an early morning communications session, saying they plan to mark the arrival of the new year with at least one - and probably two - special meals. (Includes video clip!) http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/001229greet01/

Galileo Looks for Auroras on Ganymede NASA Science News for December 28, 2000 NASA's durable Galileo spacecraft flew above the solar system's largest moon this morning in search of extraterrestrial Northern Lights -- a telltale sign of Ganymede's unique magnetic field. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast28dec_1.htm?list89800

New color movie stars Jupiter's clouds / Galileo's dark encount NEWSALERT: Thursday, December 28, 2000 @ 0525 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now CASSINI MAKES FIRST COLOR MOVIE OF JUPITER'S CLOUDS --------------------------------------------------- Imagery from NASA's Cassini spacecraft has been used to generate this first color movie of Jupiter's horizontal bands of clouds from the Saturn-bound probe. The orange and white bands slide in opposite directions from each other and a swirl of winds gyrate around Jupiter's Great Red Spot. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/28jupmovie/ GALILEO HAS DARK ENCOUNTER WITH JOVIAN MOON GANYMEDE ---------------------------------------------------- NASA's intrepid Galileo spacecraft zips past Ganymede on Thursday for a unique close encounter that provides a chance to study the faint auroral glows on the solar system's largest moon. (Includes video clips!) http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/28ganyflyby/ MARTIAN WATER MAY BE ICE IN PLANET'S INTERIOR --------------------------------------------- Liquid water that once flowed on the surface of Mars could now be locked up deep in the planet's interior as an unusual form of ice, scientists reported earlier this month. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/28marsice/ SURPRISE SWITCH FOR MIR EMERGENCY CREW -------------------------------------- Russian space managers have changed the makeup of a two-man cosmonaut crew on standby for a flight to the abandoned Mir space station in the event of any future emergency that might cause an uncontrolled re-entry. http://spaceflightnow.com/mir/001227mircrew/ RESEARCHER PROPOSES DARING ASTEROID SAMPLE RETURN ------------------------------------------------- In the wake of NASA's successful Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous space mission, a University of Arkansas researcher is putting together a team of scientists to take asteroid research to the next level -- bringing asteroid samples back to Earth. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/27asteroid/ CONTACT RESTORED WITH NEW AMATEUR RADIO SATELLITE ------------------------------------------------- The amateur radio community received a welcome Christmas present Monday when workers were able to restore contact with the AMSAT-OSCAR 40 satellite that had been silent for nearly two weeks. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/27ao40/ IRIDIUM SATELLITES USED TO MAP GLOBAL SPACE WEATHER --------------------------------------------------- Scientists are now able to simultaneously measure the magnetic and electrical fields over large areas of the ionosphere above the Earth's polar regions, allowing great improvement in the understanding and forecasting of global space weather and helping prevent disruption of communication and power systems. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/27iridiumsci/ RUSSIANS LAUNCH SIX COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITES --------------------------------------------- A Ukrainian-made Tsyklon 3 rocket loaded with six Russian communications satellites blasted off Wednesday. The launch occurred at approximately 1900 GMT (2 p.m. EST) from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northern Russia. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/27tsyklon/

More Cassini URLs NASA Jupiter Millennium Flyby: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/jupiterflyby/ Cassini mission site: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini Cassini imaging science team: http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/

Retreat of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet NASA Science News for December 27, 2000 Scientists say that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is retreating more slowly than they thought. In fact, it may have been growing just 8,000 years ago -- long after the end of the most recent Ice Age. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast27dec_1.htm?list89800

Wow, what a plethora of space news today. Great work, gleaning all this Marci!

Get our your receivers tonight - over 100/hour expected!! I am delighted you find it interesting - lots of goodies in there! Listen to the Quadrantids tonight Space Weather News for January 2, 2001 http://www.spaceweather.com The Quadrantid meteor shower will peak over North America before dawn on Wednesday morning, January 3rd. No matter where you live you can listen to the shower by tuning in to a radio meteor listening station at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. The installation, located in Huntsville, AL, is perfectly situated to detect a Quadrantid outburst. For more information and realtime audio please visit http://www.spaceweather.com

NEWSALERT: Tuesday, January 2, 2000 @ 0541 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now STATION SKIPPER WRITES POEM TO USHER IN THE NEW YEAR ---------------------------------------------------- The international space station's Exedition One commander, Bill Shepherd, has written a poem capturing his thoughts and reflections, as he and Russian shipmates, Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev, usher in 2001. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/001231poem/ SHUTTLE ATLANTIS GOES FOR SIX HOUR RIDE TO PAD TODAY ---------------------------------------------------- Rolling along at speeds reaching one-mile per hour, space shuttle Atlantis will be transported from Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building to the seaside launch pad 39A after sunrise today. Atlantis is due for blastoff later this month on a space station assembly mission. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html DESPITE PUMMELING, EARLY EARTH CONDITIONS RIPE FOR LIFE ------------------------------------------------------- Even during an extraordinarily violent era in Earth's early history, when our young planet was being whacked by asteroids and comets so frequently that scientists refer to it as "Late Heavy Bombardment," conditions most of the time at the Earth's surface were quite hospitable for the microbes that lived here, according to new research. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/01earlyearth/ SEA LAUNCH TO LOFT RADIO BROADCASTING SATELLITE ----------------------------------------------- The Sea Launch command ship and Odyssey platform are sailing to the equatorial waters of the Pacific Ocean for next week's flight of a Zenit 3SL rocket with the first of two broadcasting spacecraft for XM Satellite Radio. http://spaceflightnow.com/sealaunch/xm1/status.html THERE WERE A LOT SPACE HEADLINES OVER THE HOLIDAYS! --------------------------------------------------- Do you need to catch up on the news that occurred over the holidays? Check out our weekly archived reports for all the space headlines, including Cassini's beautiful pictures and movies of Jupiter from its recent flyby, the new fears about Mir, NASA's revived mission to Pluto and the latest with the international space station. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/breaking_archive.html LAUNCH SCHEDULE --------------- See our Tracking Station for a the latest listing of upcoming space launches for the New Year. http://spaceflightnow.com/tracking/

A New Look for the New Year NASA Science News for January 3, 2001 The Science@NASA home page has a new look and we're pleased to offer a host of new services as well, including Spanish-language science stories ... and more! FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast03jan_1.htm?list89800 ---

NEWSALERT: Wednesday, January 3, 2001 @ 0601 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES IN DISTANT GALAXIES MEASURED ----------------------------------------------------- Two astronomers at The University of Texas at Austin, working with an international team of collaborators, have shown that they can provide reliable measurements of black hole masses for active galactic nuclei such as quasars even at great distances. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/03holemeasure/ NEXT TEST FLIGHT OF CHINESE CAPSULE EXPECTED SOON ------------------------------------------------- Amid much speculation regarding a possible launch date for China's second prototype manned spacecraft, called Shenzhou, the Hong Kong-based Wen Wei Po newspaper is reporting that workers are readying the spacecraft for a launch some time in early January, possibly this week. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/03china/ COMPUTER TROUBLE FORCES HALT TO ATLANTIS ROLLOUT ------------------------------------------------ A problem with the main computer inside the crawler-transporter Tuesday forced NASA to stop the rollout of space shuttle Atlantis from Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building to the seaside launch pad 39A. Atlantis was returned to the VAB for swap-out of the crawler. Rollout is now set for Wednesday. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/010102rollout/ THERE WERE A LOT SPACE HEADLINES OVER THE HOLIDAYS! --------------------------------------------------- Do you need to catch up on the news that occurred over the holidays? Check out our weekly archived reports for all the space headlines, including Cassini's beautiful pictures and movies of Jupiter from its recent flyby, the new fears about Mir, NASA's revived mission to Pluto and the latest with the international space station. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/breaking_archive.html LAUNCH SCHEDULE --------------- See our Tracking Station for a the latest listing of upcoming space launches for the New Year. http://spaceflightnow.com/tracking/

Earth at Perihelion NASA Science News for January 4, 2001 This morning at 5 o'clock Eastern Standard time Earth made its annual closest approach to the Sun. Although sunlight falling on our planet is 7% more intense today than it is in July, northerners shouldn't expect any relief from winter. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast04jan_1.htm?list89800

The Case of the Missing Mars Water NASA Science News for January 5, 2001 Plenty of clues suggest that liquid water once flowed on Mars --raising hopes that life could have arisen there-- but the evidence remains inconclusive and sometimes contradictory. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast05jan_1.htm?list89800

Russian PM Orders Demise of Aged Mir Space Station - Jan 5 2001 7:01AM MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov has signed a resolution ordering that the aged Mir space station be taken out of orbit and sunk into the ocean early this year, the Russian space agency said Friday. A spokesman for space agency Rosaviakosmos said that Kasyanov had signed the document on Dec. 30, formalizing a government decision from November to take the nearly 15-year-old Mir, originally intended to orbit Earth for just five years, out of service due to a lack of funding. The order calls for establishing a commission to determine how Mir will be brought down, and also says that resources that had been dedicated to the orbiter were to be focused on the $60 billion International Space Station (ISS). The ISS, a 16-nation venture, uses technology developed for Mir, which for years was the world's only manned space station. During its lifetime Mir helped Soviet and Russian cosmonauts set a string of space endurance records that have been the nation's pride -- and the envy of the envy of the better-funded United States. But in recent years a spate of mishaps dulled the revolutionary space station's image, including a near-catastrophic collision with a cargo craft and a communications failure on Christmas day last month that sparked fears that Mir was spinning out of control. U.S. space officials have pushed Russia to dump Mir, saying it drained sparse resources that would be better spent on Russia's role in the International Space Station.

Aurora Watch and Lunar Eclipse Photos Space Weather News for January 11, 2001 http://www.spaceweather.com AURORA WATCH: SOHO coronagraphs recorded a full-halo solar coronal mass ejection (CME) on Wednesday that could hit Earth's magnetosphere by week's end. Our planet is already inside a faster-than-usual solar wind stream that could set the stage for auroras when the CME arrives. Visit SpaceWeather.com for details and animations of the CME. LUNAR ECLIPSE: While you're at spaceweather.com, check out our growing gallery of images from Tuesday's total lunar eclipse. Pictures include shots of the copper-colored Moon seen over Europe, Asia and the Middle East as well as striking views of a partially-eclipsed Moon rising over the eastern parts of the USA. Visit http://www.spaceweather.com

Chandra Links Pulsar to Historic Supernova NASA Science News for January 11, 2001 New evidence from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory suggests that a known pulsar is the present-day leftover from a stellar explosion witnessed by Chinese astronomers in 386 AD. The discovery could force astronomers to rethink what they know about the ages of neutron stars. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast11jan_1.htm?list89800

Ballooning for Cosmic Rays NASA Science News for January 12, 2001 12:00:00 PM Astronomers have long thought that supernovas are the source of Galactic cosmic rays, but there's a troubling discrepancy between theory and measurements. An ongoing balloon flight over Antarctica could shed new light on the mystery. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast15jan_1.htm?list89800

CME buffets Earth; Stardust flyby Monday morning Space Weather News for January 13, 2001 http://www.spaceweather.com AURORA WATCH: As expected, the leading edge of a coronal mass ejection that billowed away from the Sun on January 10th reached our planet today. Although conditions seemed favorable for auroras, the passing shock wave did not trigger substantial geomagnetic activity. STARDUST: On Monday morning, NASA's Stardust spacecraft will fly by Earth for an orbit-altering gravity assist maneuver designed to send Stardust on its way to comet Wild 2. Amateur astronomers with mid-sized or large telescopes might be able to spot the spacecraft as it races by and brightens, perhaps, to 10th or 12th magnitude. Visit http://www.spaceweather.com for details.

NEWSALERT: Saturday, January 13, 2001 @ 0558 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now CHANDRA FINDS EVIDENCE OF BLACK HOLE 'EVENT HORIZONS' ----------------------------------------------------- Astronomers have used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to study some of the darkest black holes yet observed. Their work strongly confirms the reality of the "event horizon," the one-way membrane around black holes predicted by Einstein's theory of relativity. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/13chandrahole/ REMAINS OF OUR GALAXY'S 'LAST MEAL' DISCOVERED ---------------------------------------------- A telltale bulge in the disk of the Milky Way galaxy may be the remnants of a smaller galaxy consumed billions of years ago as our galaxy formed, astronomers announced this week. The discovery may provide scientists with new data to support -- or challenge -- existing models of how galaxies are created. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/13galremains/ STARDUST'S BLURRY VISION FIXED AS CRAFT NEARS EARTH --------------------------------------------------- As NASA's Stardust comet probe barrels towards Earth for a close encounter flyby on Monday, its navigation camera appears to be working again after an apparent post-launch contamination of the device. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/13stardustflyby/ NEWBORN STAR OFFERS INSIGHT INTO OUR SOLAR SYSTEM'S PAST -------------------------------------------------------- Evidence that small dust grains are agglomerating into larger blocks inside a persistent shell of gas and dust around a young, nearby star is giving a team of astronomers a rare glimpse into the process that likely formed our solar system. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/13newborn/ EARLIER HEADLINES ----------------- REPORT: U.S. NEEDS STRONGER DEFENSE ROLE IN SPACE http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/12milspace/ NEW IMAGES SHOW DETAIL OF NEIGHBOR GALAXY'S GAS http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/12galaxygas/ ROCKET STAGE REPLACEMENT ON TAP FOR SEA LAUNCH ZENIT http://spaceflightnow.com/sealaunch/xm1/status.html

New Evidence for Black Holes NASA Science News for January 12, 2001 By seeing almost nothing, astronomers say they've discovered something extraordinary: the event horizons of black holes in space. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast12jan_1.htm?list89800

NEWSALERT: Friday, January 12, 2001 @ 0527 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now HUBBLE FINALLY MAY HAVE PROOF BLACK HOLES DO EXIST -------------------------------------------------- NASA's Hubble Space Telescope may have, for the first time, provided direct evidence for the existence of black holes by observing the disappearance of matter as it falls beyond the "event horizon." http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/11hubblehole/ REPORT: U.S. NEEDS STRONGER DEFENSE ROLE IN SPACE ------------------------------------------------- Calling space a "top national security priority," an independent commission chaired by the nation's next Secretary of Defense concluded in a report released Thursday that the United States military needs to take a more active and better focused role in Earth orbit. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/12milspace/ NEW IMAGES SHOW DETAIL OF NEIGHBOR GALAXY'S GAS ----------------------------------------------- Using radio telescopes in the U.S. and Europe, astronomers have made the most detailed images ever of Hydrogen gas in a spiral galaxy other than the Milky Way -- the galaxy M33, known to amateur astronomers as the Pinwheel Galaxy. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/12galaxygas/ NEARBY GALAXIES YIELD CLUES TO EARLY UNIVERSE --------------------------------------------- Astronomers are using these three NASA Hubble Space Telescope images to help tackle the question of why distant galaxies have such odd shapes, appearing markedly different from the typical elliptical and spiral galaxies seen in the nearby universe. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/11hubbleuv/ ROCKET STAGE REPLACEMENT ON TAP FOR SEA LAUNCH ZENIT ---------------------------------------------------- The Sea Launch vessels have set sail for home, departing the equatorial waters of the Pacific Ocean on a voyage back to the United States so a portion of the Zenit 3SL rocket can be replaced in the wake of an aborted engine ignition sequence this week. http://spaceflightnow.com/sealaunch/xm1/status.html U.S. FIRM TO BUILD CHINESE COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE --------------------------------------------------- Space Systems/Loral announced this week that it had received a contract from a Hong Kong-based satellite operator to build Apstar 5, a replacement for the aging Apstar 1 communications spacecraft. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/12apstar5/

NEWSALERT: Monday, January 15, 2001 @ 1757 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now ENGINEERS ASSESS NEW BOOSTER WIRING ISSUE ----------------------------------------- With shuttle Atlantis poised for launch Friday on a critical space station assembly mission, NASA managers plan to meet late today to assess the resolution of booster wiring problems and the results of weekend inspections that have raised additional concerns. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/010115srb/ Watch our Mission Status Center for updates today: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html

NEWSALERT: Monday, January 15, 2001 @ 0528 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now SUPERNOVA MAY CONTROL THE CENTER OF OUR GALAXY ---------------------------------------------- Scientists using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have discovered that an apparent supernova remnant in the center of our galaxy might help regulate a nearby supermassive black hole and that such relationships between supernova remnants and black holes might be common throughout the universe. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/15galaxycenter/ MARS ORBITER CHECKS OUT LANDING SITE FOR FUTURE PROBE ----------------------------------------------------- The European Space Agency has announced the selection of a landing site for the British Mars lander, Beagle 2, that will be carried to the red planet aboard ESA's Mars Express orbiter in 2003. Newly released images from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows the landing zone. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/15beagle2/ BRITISH AND CHINESE SATELLITES HEAD FOR SPACE RENDEZVOUS -------------------------------------------------------- A tiny British-built spacecraft is achieving a variety of firsts in the nanosatellite technology field. SNAP-1 will finish off this series of ground-breaking accomplishments in the next few months as it approaches a rendezvous with another satellite. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/15snap1/ ATLANTIS ASTRONAUTS BOUND FOR CAPE ---------------------------------- The five astronauts that will ride space shuttle Atlantis into orbit later this week to attach the U.S. Destiny laboratory to the international space station are scheduled for arrival at Kennedy Space Center on Monday evening. Launch is scheduled for early Friday morning from Florida. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html

NEWSALERT: Tuesday, January 16, 2001 @ 0500 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now WIRING CHECKS DELAY SHUTTLE ATLANTIS LAUNCH TO FEBRUARY ------------------------------------------------------- On the eve of shuttle Atlantis' countdown to launch Friday, NASA managers on Monday instead ordered engineers to haul the spacecraft back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for work to test suspect wiring in the ship's booster separation system. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/010115srb/ MOST DETAILED VIEW INTO DARK CLOUD UNVEILED ------------------------------------------- Astronomers have just taken an important step towards answering the fundamental question of which processes are responsible for transforming a dark and diffuse interstellar cloud of gas and dust into a much denser, shining object. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/16eso/ STARDUST SLING-SHOTS PAST EARTH ON COURSE TO COMET -------------------------------------------------- Officials at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California say that Stardust is now on course to Comet Wild 2, where it will collect dust samples for return to Earth. That word comes after a close encounter with Earth early Monday, marking the completion of the craft's first solar orbit since its launch in 1999. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/16stardust/ A SHOCKING TIME FOR CLUSTER 2 ----------------------------- Studies of near-Earth space will never be the same again. For the first time in the history of space exploration, identical instruments on four spacecraft have begun to return simultaneous measurements of a region of space known as the bow shock. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/16cluster/ GALILEO KEEPS PROBING JOVIAN MAGNETOSPHERE ------------------------------------------ This week finds Galileo completing week 12 of a 14-week-long survey of the Jovian magnetosphere. Playback of data stored during the spacecraft's December 2000 passage through the Jupiter system is not scheduled to start until early next month. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/16galileothisweek/

NEWSALERT: Wednesday, January 17, 2001 @ 0426 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now NASA'S SHUTTLE CHIEF DEFENDS ROLLBACK DECISION ---------------------------------------------- Launch of the next space shuttle mission has been delayed from Friday to no earlier than Feb. 6. NASA's shuttle program manager said in the end, the launch team had little choice after problems surfaced with wiring. "I guard against the phenomena of 'go fever' like it was the plague. And you have to be very sensitive as you get closer to launch." http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/010116dittemore/ Station 'Alpha' reacts to shuttle delay: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/video/010116shepreax_qt.html CHINA'S SHENZHOU 2 CAPSULE RETURNS TO EARTH SAFELY -------------------------------------------------- The Shenzhou 2 spacecraft returned safely to Earth Tuesday, touching down in China's inner Mongolian region at 1122 GMT after making 108 orbits. The mission paves the way for a future manned mission by the Chinese. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/16china/ INDIVIDUAL STARS SPOTTED IN ANDROMEDA'S BULGE --------------------------------------------- An individual team, including an astronomer of Observatoire de Paris, has recently observed for the first time individual stars in a very dense -- but very interesting -- zone of an external galaxy, enabling for the first time an eagerly awaited comparison with the corresponding zone (bulge) of our Milky Way galaxy. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/17andromeda/ SPACE TUG POISED FOR LAUNCH TO RUSSIA'S MIR STATION --------------------------------------------------- The Progress M1-5 cargo ship, the last spacecraft to visit Russian Mir space station, rolled out to the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Tuesday. Blastoff is scheduled for early Thursday. http://spaceflightnow.com/mir/010116progroll/ NASA OPENS 2ND GENERATION REUSABLE ROCKET PROGRAM ------------------------------------------------- NASA has created a new program office to lead its effort to enable development of a new reusable launch vehicle for flight in 2010 that will be dramatically safer and less expensive than today's rockets. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/17rlv2/ THE EASTERN U.S. KEEPS ITS COOL WHILE THE WORLD WARMS ----------------------------------------------------- Much of the Earth has warmed over the last half-century, but the eastern half of the United States has shown a cooling trend. NASA-funded research indicates cooler temperatures in the eastern U.S. are caused by an increase in sun-shielding clouds produced by warmer ocean temperatures in the Pacific. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/17easttemp/

Russia to Lauch Mir Space Station's Nemesis BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (Reuters) - Russia launches a cargo rocket on Thursday to help it bury the last vestige of the Soviet Union's ambitious space exploration program -- the record-breaking Mir space station. The unmanned Progress M1-5 vessel, one of the craft that were used to ferry food and water to Mir, will this time only carry enough fuel for its own engines to guide Mir out of orbit and into the Pacific Ocean. The rocket is due to blast off from Kazakhstan's windswept Baikonur cosmodrome at 0656 GMT. It is scheduled to dock four days later with the 130-tonunmanned space station. In early March, both will crash into the ocean. Space officials have said up to 40 tonnes of debris will reach the earth's surface at a speed high enough to smash through two meters (6.5 feet) of reinforced concrete. Russia has said it expects Mir to hit earth on March 5-6 but the precise date and time will depend on solar activity and the success of the Progress mission. If the automatic docking controlled from the earth fails, a Russian crew of Gennady Padalka and Nikolai Budarin is ready to take off in 12 days to guide the station out of orbit manually. This would end the 15-year history of Mir, whose first part was launched into orbit on February 20, 1986, with an originally designed life-span of just three years. Russia, struggling to overcome an economic crisis after almost a decade of steep recession, could not find $200 million needed to maintain the station. It decided in November to dump Mir into the ocean on its 15th birthday. Yuri Koptev, head of Russia's space and aviation agency, said last month there was little point in maintaining a station where cosmonauts spent 80 percent of their time on repairs. Cash-strapped Russia, where power cuts regularly plunge whole regions into darkness and many people use kerosene lamps and home-made stoves to survive the winter, has long regarded the station as an example of its technological genius. MANY RECORDS SET The station, visited by 28 long-term expeditions with a total of 106 cosmonauts, has set many records. Kazakh cosmonaut Talbat Musabayev spent more than 30 hours in one month working outside the station to secure his place in the Guinness Book of Records. Russian Sergei Avdeyev, who spent 747 days in space, remains the only cosmonaut in the world to have toasted the New Year three times in orbit. But Mir has also seen a number of frustrating glitches. In February 1997, fire broke out when cosmonauts tried to change an air filter. A few months later, Mir's energy supply fell dramatically after a Progress cargo craft hit it during docking and damaged its solar batteries. In September 1997, a computer failed, leaving Mir spinning aimlessly. Two years later, the station went into hibernation after Mission Control shut down its main computer by accident. After the dumping of Mir, Russia will focus on the ambitious $60 billion, 16-nation venture to build the International Space Station (ISS). But for many who remember the heyday of the Soviet space industry, when state funds were spent generously on the sector to dazzle the West with its achievements, the dumping of Mir will mean the end of an epoch. "Thursday's launch would have been nothing out of the ordinary if it wasn't aimed at guiding Mir out of its orbit," Nikolai Zelenshchikov, first deputy head of the Energiya corporation that runs Mir, told Reuters. "This is sad, but we understand that Mir's work must come to an end and we should then switch over to building the ISS."

Precocious Earth NASA Science News for January 17, 2001 Tiny zircon crystals found in ancient stream deposits suggest that Earth harbored continents and liquid water remarkably soon after our planet formed. Life could have established a foothold on Earth 400 million years earlier than expected. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast17jan_1.htm?list89800

NEWSALERT: Thursday, January 18, 2001 @ 0220 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now ICE MAY HAVE FORMED MARTIAN CHANNELS ------------------------------------ Some channels on the surface of Mars believed to have been formed by running water may have instead been carved by streams of ice. Channels in one region of Mars share a number of key characteristics with those created by ice streams that flow beneath Antarctica's surface and empty into the surrounding oceans. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/18marsice/ U.S. WEATHER SATELLITE LAUNCH BUMPED TO SATURDAY ------------------------------------------------ A vintage Titan 2 rocket built in the 1960s is poised for a $430 million launch before sunrise Saturday from Central California carrying a crucial replacement global weather satellite for the U.S. military. The liftoff was delayed 24 hours so workers could replace a faulty cabling used in pre-flight rocket testing. http://spaceflightnow.com/titan/g9/preview.html CASSINI PROBE FAILS TO FIND LIGHTNING ON VENUS ---------------------------------------------- Space physicist Donald Gurnett says that a search for lightning on Venus in 1998 and 1999 using the Cassini spacecraft failed to detect high-frequency radio waves commonly associated with lightning. The possible existence of lightning at Venus has long been controversial. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/18cassvenus/ GLOBALSTAR ACTS TO ASSURE FUNDS FOR FURTHER OPERATIONS ------------------------------------------------------ Globalstar has announced that, in order to have sufficient funds available for the continued progress of its marketing and service activities, it has suspended indefinitely principal and interest payments on all of its funded debt and dividend payments on its preferred stock. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/18globalstar/ EXPERIMENTAL EUROPEAN SATELLITE SWITCHES ROCKETS ------------------------------------------------ Europe has officially dropped a previous agreement with Japan to launch the Artemis experimental communications satellite aboard the unproven H-2A rocket in favor of using an Ariane 5 booster. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/18artemis/

The Eastern U.S. Keeps Its Cool NASA Science News for January 18, 2001 While surface temperatures across most of the globe are on the rise, the eastern U.S. appears to be slowly cooling. Scientists say the trend could be a result of increasing cloud cover triggered by warming Pacific waters. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast18jan_1.htm?list89800

NEWSALERT: Friday, January 19, 2001 @ 0606 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now REMARKABLE NEW VIEWS CAPTURES OF ORION NEBULA --------------------------------------------- Orion the Hunter is perhaps the best known constellation in the sky, well placed in the evening at this time of the year for observers in both the northern and southern hemispheres, and instantly recognizable. The new pictures captured by astronomers are a must see! http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/19orion/ NUCLEAR ENGINE PROMISES TO SLASH TRAVEL TIMES TO MARS ----------------------------------------------------- A novel type of nuclear reactor could cut make it possible for spacecraft to travel from the Earth to Mars in as little as two weeks, one Israeli researcher has found. A little-known isotope of an artificially produced element could power future robotic or human spacecraft far more efficiently than chemical or other nuclear propulsion sources. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/19marsnuclear/ SPACE STATION CREW FACES TOUGH SCHEDULE --------------------------------------- An 18-day delay for the next space station assembly mission has thrown a wrench into the on-board crew's timeline, compressing an already busy schedule of work that must be completed before arrival of their replacements in early March, officials said Thursday. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/010118issupdate/ LAUNCH OF PROGRESS FREIGHTER TO MIR SCRUBBED -------------------------------------------- Orientation troubles aboard the abandoned Russian space station Mir forced officials to scrub Thursday's planned launch of an unmanned freighter that will ultimately deorbit the outpost in March. http://spaceflightnow.com/mir/010118scrub/ TITAN ROCKET TO LAUNCH WEATHER SATELLITE SATURDAY ------------------------------------------------- The 26-hour countdown is scheduled to begin this morning at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California leading to Saturday's launch of a U.S. military weather satellite aboard a refurbished Titan 2 rocket booster. We will have live coverage launch! http://spaceflightnow.com/titan/g9/status.html STARDUST LOOKS DOWN ON MOON'S NORTH POLE ---------------------------------------------- Just after NASA's Stardust spacecraft successfully flew by the Earth on Monday to use the planet's gravity to change its orbit, the comet-bound probe took a series of images of the Moon to calibrate its onboard camera. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/19stardustlunar/ LEONIDS ROSE TO OCCASION, DESPITE BAD WEATHER --------------------------------------------- Read about the adventures and results of European astronomers as they attempted to image the Leonids meteors by splitting up into teams and working from different locations to create stereo observations. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/19leonids/ CASSINI SPACE PROBE JOURNEYS INTO JUPITER'S MAGNETOSPHERE --------------------------------------------------------- NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows that the craft recent was inside Jupiter's magnetosphere at the same time the Galileo probe flew within the vast surrounding environment of charged particles moving under the influence of the planet's magnetic field. This marks the first time humankind has placed two spacecraft within the magnetosphere of an outer planet at the same time. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/19jupmagnet/

Wow, Mirs finally coming down in March.

Yup - hope their aim is good!!! Layers of Mars Last year NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft spotted mysterious layered regions on Mars. If the layers are sedimentary deposits that formed underwater, as some scientists suspect, they could be the best places to hunt for elusive Martian fossils. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast23jan_1.htm?list89800