Endeavour is on the last day of its mapping mission - Stay Tuned for more Shuttle news!
Follow the current mission status from NASA JSC & KSC,  Florida Today, and CBS News. Watch live video on NASA TV! (Check schedule here).
Check Mission Control's  morning and evening Shuttle status reports.

Today In Space History - 38 years ago today (20 Feb 1962), John Glenn rocketed into space aboard his "Friendship 7" capsule. The Mercury-Atlas 6 mission was the first orbital flight by a U.S. astronaut, catapulting Glenn to national hero status, and giving the American space program a much-needed shot in the arm, after several successes by the Soviet Union threatened to leave the U.S. behind in the space race. The launch (the first from Cape Canaveral's Pad 14) was NASA's third manned space mission, sending Glenn on a 3-orbit mission for nearly five hours. Mission Facts here and here; Crew info here and here; News highlights here, here, and here; Image collections here, here, and here. Glenn's Mercury spacecraft was far from trouble-free. He had to take manual control of the capsule after an automatic thruster malfunctioned, and there was a scare when the heat shield, which protected the astronaut from incinerating in the heat of atmospheric friction, was thought to have come loose.  Glenn left NASA after realizing he wouldn't fly in space again - making him the first ex-astronaut! He started a career in business, and entered politics, becoming a U.S. senator and making an unsuccessful 1984 bid for President. He finally did return to space, as part of the crew of Shuttle Discovery's STS95 mission in 1998.

The Hayden Planetarium is back! Part of the new Rose Center for Earth and Space in the American Museum of Natural History, the Planetarium re-opens today.

After 2 days of weather-related delays, France's Arianespace has launched a Japanese communications satellite, SUPERBIRD-4, aboard an Ariane-4 rocket.

Mars Polar Lander? Forget it! The renewed search has been called off - signals heard last month were probably not from the lost space-probe, after all. Back to the drawing board!

Where did the moon come from? Our peaceful satellite may have had a violent origin!

Can Russia revive an enormous radio-telescope - a former cold-war weapon - for scientific use?

NASA boss Dan Goldin dukes it out with Congress about budget increases, and U.S. dependence on Russia for key ISS components.

The Cassini probe, on its way to Saturn, has captured new images of the asteroid 2685 Masursky.

More on the NEAR probe's orbit of asteroid Eros [See also 14 Feb].

A private company is providing millions of dollars in funding to keep Russia's Mir space station in orbit. [See also 6 Feb].

A Russian search team has located the Fregat rocket booster which has been missing since its return to Earth nearly 5 days ago. The unmanned ship has some innovative features, such as a new heat shield design and a motor that can be stopped and restarted numerous times while in flight. The dummy satellite, which was on board, has yet to be recovered. [See also 9 Feb].

More hearts??? Mars Global Surveyor spots a heart-shaped mesa on the Red Planet (OK, I'm ready to vomit now, with all this Valentine stuff!).

NASA is keeping an eye on Shuttle Endeavour's fuel consumption. At this rate, the radar-mapping mission may have to be cut short by up to a day, reducing the amount of data returned. The flight is going well otherwise, with scientists on the ground reportedly being elated with the super-detailed images coming back from STS-99, which has mapped 21 million square miles of the Earth's surface so far.
Follow the current mission status from NASA JSC & KSC,  Florida Today, and CBS News. Watch live video on NASA TV! (Check schedule here).
Check Mission Control's  morning and evening Shuttle status reports.

The NEAR probe continues its approach of the asteroid Eros (that's right, named after the "love god"!). It is set to orbit the oddly-shaped asteroid tomorrow (Valentine's Day - these guys don't miss a trick, do they?)

12 February - 4PM EST - The first images from Shuttle Endeavour's radar-mapping mission have come back from orbit, showing a small, super-detailed radar snapshot of White Sands, New Mexico (USA). 
Follow the current mission status from NASA JSC & KSC,  Florida Today, and  CBS News. Watch live video on NASA TV! (Check schedule here).
Check Mission Control's  morning and evening Shuttle status reports.

Russia has resumed flights of their Proton rocket, launching a commercial satellite for Indonesia today. It was the first launch of the workhorse booster since Kazakhstan (home of Russia's launch facility) lifted their ban on Proton launches (due to 2 crashes there last year). The Garuda-1 ("Eagle")  satellite will provide voice, fax and pager services throughout the Pacific Rim.

12 February - Shuttle Endeavour is off to a good start as the six-member crew begins their mission to create a 3-D map of the Earth. The STS-99 flight was cleared for launch yesterday morning and had a flawless liftoff at 12:43PM EST from Florida's Kennedy Space Center. Shortly after reaching orbit, the 197-ft-long (60-meter) radar mast, the largest rigid structure ever to fly in space, was deployed from the orbiter's payload bay.
Check daily "Notes from the Project Scientist", and coverage from Florida Today and CBS.

NEARly there, NASA is set to rendezvous with an asteroid named Eros (named after the mythical god of love) on Monday - Valentine's day! The asteroid has about 100 craters that will need naming (with a love/romance theme) - and you can help! Enter The Planetary Society's "Names On Eros" contest! The NEAR probe will be the first spacecraft to ever orbit an asteroid.

Despite yesterday's awesome Shuttle launch, there are concerns about the safety of the fleet as the launch schedule begins to pick up the pace.

Russian Shuttle model to become museum exhibit in Australia!

The main office building at KSC was evacuated yesterday, as employees called in to report "suspicious-looking people" in the building. They turned out to be legitimate NASA employees. Better safe than blown to bits, we always say.

How common could intelligent life be beyond the Earth? Scientists are debating! 

Russia's space agency has pledged to launch the crew module for the International Space Station this July, which will lead to full-time occupation this November. 

Today In Space History - The 3rd anniversary (11 Feb 1997) of the STS-82 (Shuttle Discovery) launch, the 82nd Shuttle flight. Mission Facts here and here; Crew info here and here; News highlights here; Image collections here and here. This was the 22nd flight for Discovery, which would land at night at KSC nearly 10 days later. This was the second mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. The Mobile Launch Platform developed a crack during rollout, but Discovery continued on its slow journey to Pad 39A after a 7-hour inspection [Source: Catherin Gregory].

Did the universe start with a "Big Bang"? Scientists in Switzerland have created a "Little Bang" that may help prove the theory of how matter was created.

Europe's new XMM satellite, an X-ray telescope even larger than Chandra, continues to send super images to scientists on Earth, some of which suggest that the universe is hotter than previously thought.

China wants a global treaty to ban space-based weapons, in response to recent U.S. tests of anti-missile technology. 

Russia tested an advanced launch vehicle today, but it is still missing in the Ural mountains after its return to Earth. The "Fregat" rocket component is re-usable, and is capable of stopping and re-starting its engines several times during flight. The revolutionary design can be integrated into current Russian rocket models.

After four years in space, the SOHO space telescope, designed to observe the Sun from Earth orbit, has made over 100 comet observations.

Will the International Space Station ever get off the ground?

Close call? Yesterday's story of a potential Earth collision in 2022 turned out to be a false alarm, as updated course calculations showed that the asteroid, 2000 BF19, will miss our planet by 3.5 million miles (actually, that's a pretty narrow margin in the grand scheme of things!)

The missing Mars Polar Lander continues to elude the efforts of radio-astronomers around the world to locate the probe. After NASA had declared the lander "officially dead" in January, scientists at Stanford University thought they picked up a faint signal from the spacecraft earlier this month, prompting a renewed search.

A California desert town will allow a "lunar colony" to be built within its borders - as a prototype for the real thing!

That's the way the planet crumbles: Astronomers have discovered an asteroid which could collide with the Earth 22 years from now! Dang! Just when we were using up all our Y2K supplies, too!

Cape Canaveral will also see a rocket launch tomorrow: a Boeing Delta II will loft four GlobalStar comm sats into orbit. Follow the 3:54PM EST launch at Florida Today.

Endeavour's crew is back at KSC today, preparing for Friday's launch.

Russia will be able to continue launching their Proton heavy-lift rocket, thanks to neighboring Kazakhstan's lifting of their launch ban. The former Soviet republic is home to the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Russia's main launch facility.

A huge solar flare erupted Saturday, releasing ten million times the energy released from a volcanic explosion.

President Clinton proposed a 3% increase for NASA's 2001 budget, bringing the space agency's funding level to $14 billion (that'll buy a lot of Tang!).

Giant dish antennas around the world continue to strain to hear if the little Mars Polar Lander is alive after all.

Senators support sharing of missile defense technology with Russia! [see also 20 Jan].  U.S. allies are skeptical of the system.

Concern is building over Russia's decision to extend their use of their aging Mir station. The U.S. feels that they should be concentrating on the ISS instead.

ISS managers will travel to Moscow for a Joint Program Review this Thursday. We predict a tense meeting!

NASA's budget for next year will include increased funding for safety, new space vehicle development, and space science.

More on the recently-published Hubble photos of the "Keyhole Nebula" [see also 3 Feb].

Scientists in Britain, The Netherlands, and possibly Italy, are pitching in to listen for possible signals from the Mars Polar Lander - signals so faint and distant, it's like trying to detect a cell phone call placed from the Red Planet! No new signals have been detected, but analysis of the huge data-stream is underway.

So how does Russia make that inflatable heat shield work?

Japan and the U.S. are launching another orbiting X-ray telescope, known as Astro-E. It will use a super-cooled sensor to detect individual X-ray photons. It will be the coldest object in space - 460° Fahrenheit below zero! (Didn't we tell you space was cool?) The launch will take place on Monday, 7 Feb at 8:30PM EST aboard Japan's M-5 solid-fueled rocket.

NASA chief speaks out on Russia's Mir launch! U.S. politicians are peeved, too. Can our Russian partners support two space stations?

A rock-hound's find of 20 years ago turns out to be a rare meteorite from Mars!

Endeavour's faulty avionics module has been swapped out and is being tested. The Shuttle is set to launch this Friday on its Radar Mapping mission, with a crew of 6 aboard (including astronauts from Germany and Japan).

The U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Alabama is getting ready to choose a new CEO.

Spain launches third HISPASAT comm satellite from Cape Canaveral's Pad 36B. An Atlas IIAS rocket lifted the bird into orbit at 6:30PM EST. ¡Arriba España!

The Russian Progress supply ship has docked with the Mir space station today. The unmanned space tug is loaded with supplies for a planned 45-day mission that will see two cosmonauts boarding the now-empty station in March. Their first order of business will be to seal the air leak that is allowing precious oxygen to vent to space at 1% per week! An orbital docking with no one aboard, remote controlled - those guys are good! [see also 1 Feb].

Unmanned cargo ships aren't the only spacecraft Russia is launching: a Zenit-2 rocket carried a super-secret military satellite into orbit today. 

NEAR space probe prepares for rendezvous with asteroid this month [see also 23 Jan].

More striking photos from Hubble - this time, from April 1999. It is back online, generating new images as well.

The Dutch were unable to hear any signals from the Mars Polar Lander - possibly due to interference from all the audio/video gear and cell phones from the swarm of news media at the observatory. Now the British are going to give it a try, with their super-sensitive Jodrell Bank radiotelescope (once the world's largest!). 

More news from Europe: the giant orbiting XMM X-ray telescope has captured its first images since its launch in December.

Today In Space History: The first-ever soft landing on the moon was made 33 years ago today, when the Soviet Luna 9 probe touched down at the Sea Of Storms on 3 Feb 1966, after a 3-day voyage. [source: Tipworld/John S. Miller]

Today also marks the fifth anniversary of the STS-63 Shuttle mission, where Eileen Collins became the first woman to pilot a Space Shuttle (Discovery). She would go on to command 1999's STS-93 mission to deploy the Chandra X-ray telescope. [source: AP]

The Galileo spacecraft is still exploring Jupiter and its moons!

Retired astronaut Joe Allen met with third graders at Challenger Elementary School in Huntsville, AL to talk about space travel and their city's role in space exploration.

February SPACEWARN bulletin (listing spacecraft launches) here.

Russia, working with ESA, is testing an inflatable device to let spacecraft make a soft Earth re-entry!

Just like "Down The Shore": Sand avalanches and dunes spotted on Mars!

More on the now-international search to discern faint signals from the Mars Polar Lander.

Want to make your own black hole? Find out how here!

Russia has launched an unmanned supply ship to the vacant Mir space station. Do they still care about participating in the ISS?

31 January - Endeavour to launch today at 12:47PM EST - if the weather holds up! Watch it live on NASA TV!

Today in Space History - Today marks the 42nd anniversary of the launch of Explorer 1, America's first satellite. The flight, on 31 Jan 1958, came almost 4 months after the Soviet launch of the world's first satellite, Sputnik 1, and followed a failed U.S. attempt to launch a different satellite called Vanguard. Explorer 1 was launched by a U.S. Army Redstone booster (AKA Jupiter C/Juno I) from Cape Canaveral's Pad 26, and was America's entry into the space race. It discovered the Van Allen radiation belts that surround the Earth. The spacecraft orbited our planet until 1970.

Today is also the 29th anniversary of the Apollo 14 moon launch.  On 31 January 1971,  Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa, and Edgar Mitchell rode a Saturn V rocket from KSC, on their way to the moon. Mission Fact sheet here; Crew info here; Image collections here and here. AS-14 - the first mission after the Apollo 13 accident - made the 3rd lunar landing on 9 Feb 1971. Shepard, who died of leukemia in 1998, became the first American in space on his 1961 Mercury 3 flight and was the oldest man to walk on the moon.

30 January - More on Endeavour's engine problems. It seems that a defective part of a turbopump seal, which should have been discarded, somehow found its way into Discovery's final flight hardware. It was actually used in 5 or 6 previous launches, including last month's Hubble repair flight! NASA wants to ensure that the same thing did not happen with Endeavour.

On top of everything else, the weather may interfere with tomorrow's Shuttle launch.

If you're watching the Superbowl today, keep your eyes peeled for an ad promoting the upcoming movie, "Mission To Mars"!

Weather and a possible engine flaw threaten Endeavour launch date. A decision on whether to delay tomorrow's launch is expected today.

China denounces U.S. anti-missile testing, citing concern over the militarization of space. How about pointing your nukes somewhere else, then?!?!?

Russia is planning an unmanned Mars probe! [scroll to middle of page]. Hope they have better luck than us!!

The renewed search for the Mars Polar Lander goes global as NASA asks radio-astronomers in three other countries to help listen for possible faint signals from the lost spacecraft.

Mir operations could resume as early as February, with an unmanned supply ship scheduled for launch early on the 1st.

John Glenn's 1998 Shuttle mission earned him high marks for his physical endurance. Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth (1962), was 77 when he returned to space as part of the STS-95 flight.

Will orbiting hotels be in our future? Maybe - if you have the bucks!

Hope continues to build that faint signals may have been detected from the Mars Polar Lander. Even if the spacecraft is intact, it is highly unlikely that it will be able to carry out its original mission.

Today in Space History - Today marks the 14th anniversary of the biggest tragedy in the history of the Space Program: The Challenger disaster.  On 28 January 1986,  7 astronauts lost their lives when Shuttle Challenger exploded just 73 seconds after launch. Mission Fact sheet here; Crew info here; Image collections here and here. STS-51L was the 25th Shuttle mission and carried the first "Teacher In Space", Christa McAuliffe. Challenger, (OV-99), was the second orbiter built, and had completed 9 successful missions (starting with STS-6 in 1983) before the terrible incident, which was caused by O-rings in the right solid rocket booster becoming brittle in the winter cold. The Challenger Learning Centers, dedicated to space science education, were founded in their honor. Remember the brave men and women of Challenger and Apollo 1!

Almost all of John Glenn's medical tests on STS-95 were successful! Glenn became the oldest person ever to travel in space (77) in 1998.

NASA may launch an extra Shuttle mission to the ISS in April, if Russia is unable to launch the crew module by mid-year. The flight would be a new mission for Atlantis, but will retain the STS-101 designation.

Stunning photos of the recent lunar eclipse are emerging.

Chinese students to conduct experiment on a future Shuttle flight. 

Endeavour's crew arrives at KSC for STS-99 mission (the same day as a private memorial service for the Apollo 1 astronauts was being held)! Liftoff is scheduled for 12:47PM EST on Monday (31 Jan 2000)

Today in Space History - Today marks the 33rd anniversary of a tragic day in the race for the moon: the Apollo 1 fire.  On 27 Jan 1967, three astronauts lost their lives on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral during a test procedure in preparation for what would have been the first mission in the lunar program. Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee perished when a spark ignited the pure-oxygen atmosphere of the Apollo Command Module at Pad 34. Details here [requires free Adobe Acrobat Reader]; Crew info here; Image collections here and here. The loss of AS-204 caused a delay of nearly two years in the Apollo program, resulting in many changes to the spacecraft design. In December 1997, nearly 31 years after the accident, President Clinton awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the fallen astronauts (their families accepted the medals). Never forget the heroes of space exploration!

Shuttle Endeavour is ready to go for Monday's mission.

More on the possible demise of the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, which may have to be scuttled in the Pacific in order to prevent a random crash back to Earth. CGRO just observed a gamma-ray burst in real time - maybe the old bird is worth saving? [see also 19 Jan & 14 Jan].

Could life exist on Jupiter's moon Europa? More pieces of this puzzle are falling into place!

NASA tests space dust left by last week's Yukon meteor blast.

Russia's Mir space station had its orbit adjusted yesterday, in preparation for a new crew in April.

NASA and the U.S. Army will be working together to develop simulation technologies for training soldiers and astronauts.

How is NASA using 1997's wildly successful Mars Pathfinder probe to help find the corpse of the failed Polar Lander? 
FLASH! Feeble signals may have been picked up! Could MPL be alive? Don't get your hopes up!!

Last night's satellite launch was a success! The Galaxy XR comm satellite went aloft at 8:04PM EST from Arianespace's facility in French Guiana, aboard their Ariane 42L booster. Video clip here.

CBS reports on last week's Lunar eclipse [See also 21 Jan].

Not so fastski! Kazakhstan has not yet permitted Russia to continue their Proton rocket launches. Two mishaps there last year prompted the former Soviet republic to ban further launches until Russia cleans up the toxic mess. Moscow had announced the resumption of launches earlier this week. They are planning a satellite launch next month [See also 29 Oct 1999 and 1 Aug 1999].

A panel of journalists at KSC claim that the space program "needs to ignite excitement" for the public to be more interested.

Shuttle status from KSC...

John Glenn would love yet another return to space (but his wife wants him home!)

NASA clears Endeavour for next Shuttle flight on 31 Jan! The mission could have been delayed over concerns about the spacecraft's heat shield [See also 19 Jan].

Despite recent disappointments, NASA dreams big for future missions.

The rusting Saturn V rocket at JSC has been declared a national treasure by the Smithsonian, and will be restored for a museum at the Houston space facility. (How about firing it up for a ride to the moon?)

Want to chat with the experts on the ground working with the next Shuttle mission? Find out how here!

Did a prehistoric shift in the Earth's internal structure cause its axis to wobble millions of years ago?

JPL awards half-million dollars for Solar System Educators Program to help teachers and their math & science students.

NASA's NEAR probe is set to rendezvous with an asteroid next month!

More on Friday's launch of an Air Force DSCS III satellite [see 20 Jan 2000].

Longtime space engineer is looking for his old buddies.

Where is the best place to launch the next generation of space vehicles? Florida!

A British school teacher who organized radio monitoring of secret Soviet space missions, is dead at 76.

Russia assures U.S. that, despite their plans to keep the abandoned Mir station going, the ISS still remains their top priority. They plan to resume launches of their Proton rocket as early as next month.

Independent Mars assessment team visits with prime contractor Lockheed Martin.

Upcoming events at the National Atomic Museum, operated by Sandia Laboratories, include "Women and Flight", featuring photos, profiles, and bios of 37 women aviators and astronauts. The exhibit starts Monday and is on through 5 March 2000 in Albuquerque, NM.

The former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, site of the Baikonur Cosmodrome, may lift its ban on Russian rocket launches, in effect since two Proton boosters crashed there last year. 

Did NASA have a secret meeting with Russian space experts to plan a manned Mars mission? NASA Watch thinks so!