Universe Today

Mir Cosmonaut Contacts Students

To help announce the opening of a new program to connect 2,000 schools through the Internet, Russian cosmonaut, Viktor Afanasyez radioed a message of congratulations from Mir as it passed overhead.

BBC News

A Rare Second Blue Moon to Occur Wednesday

Today marks an astronomical rarity – the second blue moon of the year. Blue moons look no different from regular full moons, but happen when the moon is full twice in the same month. Two blue moons in a year happens only four times a century.

NASA Space Science News
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Space Online

EU Considers Financing Satellite Navigation System

The European Union is considering developing its own network of navigational satellites, called Galileo. By developing this network, they hope to relive their dependence on American and Russian technology. The system is expected to cost 2.9 billion euros, and will be complete by 2008.

CNN Space

Launch Facilities Meet to Discuss Capacity

Aging equipment, packed schedules, and inefficient infrastructure were just some of the problems identified at the recent House Science Committee meetings held earlier this week. In some cases, launch sites are using technology that dates back to the early 1950s.

SpaceViews

Hubble Views Stormy Uranus

New views of Uranus by the Hubble Space Telescope have shown the planet to be colourful and stormy. A timelapse movie created from Hubble’s images shows moons circling, rings wobbling, and storms raging across the surface of the distant planet.

Astronomy Now
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Mars Surveyor Deploys High-Gain Antenna

Although the Mars Surveyor has already sent back stunning images from the surface of the Red Planet, communication with the probe is about to improve, as it deploys its high-gain antenna. Using this and its other instruments, the spacecraft is mapping the surface of the planet, determining potential future landings sites.

Astronomy Now
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Sea Launch Satellite Achieves High Orbit

With a successful test launch of a dummy satellite to an orbit of 23,000 miles above the Earth, the Sea Launch is primed to begin commercial operations.

CNN Space

Six Month Delay Between Shuttle Launches

Because of Russian delays and a stalled telescope, NASA engineers will have to wait a total of 167 days between its last Space Shuttle launch and the next, scheduled for May 20th. There’s only been one longer delay, 975 days, after the Challenger accident in 1986.

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Sea Launch Successful

The ocean-based Sea Launch, designed to launch rockets from the mid-Pacific, had its first successful test on Saturday – a Russian Zenit-3SL rocket equipped with a dummy satellite. The rocket lifted from the launch pad, and flew up to an altitude of 1,200 miles where it separated from the satellite.

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Astronomers Discover Asteroid with Moon

Astronomers have discovered a tiny moon orbiting the asteroid 45 Eugenia. Given the romantic name of S/1998 (45) 1, the moon is guessed to be no larger than 10 km long, and orbits the larger asteroid every 4.7 days.

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MIT Students Develop Business Plan for Mars Trip

Using the Internet to coordinate their activities, a group of MIT students have developed a business plan for an expedition to Mars. The students are taking part in a competition sponsored by NASA, who plans to incorporate the strategies into its own Mars mission.

ThinkMars Website
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NASA Plans Russian Hardware Purchases

NASA plans to spend $100 million of this year’s operating budget to purchase hardware from Russian manufacturers. The bulk of this money will be invested into Soyuz space station, which will serve as a crew return vehicle until the X-38’s larger implementation is completed.

SpaceViews

Huge Gamma Ray Burst Detected

Astronomers recently observed the largest explosion ever witnessed. Thought to be caused by the birth of a black hole, or the collision of two neutron stars, energy from the explosion traveled nine billion light years, and was visible by the naked eye.

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NASA Gamma Ray Bursts Information

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Space Central

Chilean Telescope Facility is Now Operational

Taking advantage of the clear skies over Northern Chile, the first optical telescope at the Paranal Observatory facility has captured amazing images of space. Over the next few years, the facility will have a total of four high-powered telescopes linked electronically.

European Southern Observatory
BBC News

NASA Tests How to Extract Oxygen from Mars Atmosphere

In preparation for a manned flight to Mars, NASA scientists are testing a device to extract oxygen from the hostile Martian atmosphere. Once the technology has been perfected, astronauts will be able to prepare the air they need, without bringing it from the Earth.

NASA Press Release

SpaceViews

Air Force Tests Ammonia-Fueled Engine

The Air Force recently tested the ESEX, a new high-powered electric propulsion system over the Pacific Ocean. Designed to maneuver satellites in orbit, the arcjet produced a third of a pound of thrust for just over two minutes.

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Sea Launch Prepares For First Blastoff

Floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the Sea Launch (an oil rig in a previous life) is preparing for its first test launch on Saturday. Positioned precisely at the Earth’s equator, the Sea Launch will take maximum advantage of the Earth’s spin to decrease fuel costs.

BBC News

Global Surveyor Reveals Impressive Features on Mars

Finally in orbit around the Red Planet, the Mars Global Surveyor is starting to send back stunning images from the surface, including craters, strings of elliptical pits, and volcanoes.

Official NASA page
BBC News

Rocket Launches Causing Damage to the Atmosphere

Alexei Yablokov, head of the Center for Environmental Policy in Moscow has recently stated that up to 50% of Ozone Layer damage could be caused by rocket launches, which could lead to an environmental catastrophe in the next 20-30 years.

CNN Space

Scientists Challenge Big Bang Theory

Australian scientists have developed a technique they believe will help them find stars flung out of galaxies by gravitational interactions. They’ve already found 160 so far, and suspect that this number indicates that there may be an equal number of stars outside of galaxies as those that lie within them.

exoScience

Where’s All the Antimatter?

Experiments at the Fermi Particle Accelerator, located near Chicago, have begun to provide clues as to why the universe is mostly made up of matter, instead of anti-matter. If the numbers had been equal, the universe would have annihilated itself in a flash of energy.

ABC News

Sun’s Heat Pushes Asteroids Out of their Orbit

Because of their irregular shapes, asteroids are warmed unevenly by the Sun. This force, called the ‘Yarkovsky effect’ is thought to slowly push asteroids out of their regular main-belt orbit. Astronomers believe that some of these strays are picked up by Mars’ gravity and hurled into Earth-crossing orbits.

Astronomy Now

Stardust Enters Safe Mode

During testing and transmission of its first few images from space, Stardust’s main computer shut down non-critical systems, and entered safe mode. The spacecraft resumed normal operations later in the day when NASA engineers re-established contact.

Astronomy Now
CNN Space

Orbital Sciences Signs Contract for TVSat Deal

B-SAT, Japan’s Broadcasting Satellite System Corporation recently awarded the contract to Orbital Sciences to build and launch two GEO orbit satellites.

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Lovell Radio Telescope Resumes Search for Life in Space

The damage from September’s Hurricane George has been repaired, and the Arecibo Radio Observatory in Puerto Rico has resumed operations searching for signs of extra-terrestrial life.

Astronomy Now

Crippled Hubble Glimpses Distant Galaxies

Astronomers have published recent snapshots taken by the Hubble Space Telescope of some nearby galaxies. Mostly obscured by dust, the (now damaged) Near Infrared Camera cut through the haze and delivered spectacular images of galactic starbirth.

BBC News
CNN Space

Chinese Satellite Launches from Kazakhstan

A Chinese satellite, the Asiasat 3S, launched aboard a Russian-built Proton-K rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The satellite will transmit television and communication signals throughout Southeast Asia.

CNN Space
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Space Station Crew May Launch Earlier than Expected

NASA is considering launching a permanent crew to the International Space Station as earlier as October of this year, only a few months after the major living portions of the Station have been made livable. This launch date depends on the Russian crew quarters, which are still incomplete because of inadequate funding.

Fox News

Mars Bacteria Seems Earthlike

Two separate Martian meteorites have been found to contain organisms which are very similar to Earth bacteria. NASA researchers who uncovered the resemblance are cautious, but hopeful that they’ve found further evidence of life on Mars.

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Houston Chronicle

John Glenn Toasted by Friends and Colleagues

Old friends and astronauts spent a night honoring the spaceflight pioneer with toasts, skits, and speeches. Glenn took it all in with good humor, and some wisecracks of his own. It’s been 37 years since Glenn became the first man to orbit the Earth.

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Evidence Supports Theory of Moon Carved from the Earth

NASA’s Lunar Prospector has gathered evidence to determine that the moon has a small iron core. This evidence supports the theory that the moon was formed when a Mars-sized planet collided with the Earth and scraped surface soil into orbit – which later formed into the Moon.

exoScience
MSNBC

Houston Chronicle
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Cosmic Rays Observatory to be Built in Argentina

Four telescopes and 1,600 particle detectors will be arrayed in central Argentina, over the next five years. The $100M project will work by detecting the slight flashes made as cosmic rays strike the upper atmosphere.

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