Universe Today

Hubble Captures Tarantula Nebula

The Hubble team has released its latest photo of the heavens. This time the space telescope shows fantastic views of the Tarantula Nebula, created by exploded supernovae, and found inside the Large Magellanic Cloud.

Astronomy Now
explorezone.com

NASA’s Aid to Russia Could Impact Space Station

NASA is planning to buy a second Soyuz spacecraft ($64 million) to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station. Critics are concerned that this money will jeopardize much-need research funds for experiments on the station.

Fox Space

US Policy Makes Student Launch Impossible

Unable to afford the $4.5 million fee to launch a satellite, Doctoral student Michael Swartwout, accepted a free launch with a Russian university. But US policy classifies the satellite as munitions, and won’t allow it to leave the country.

Fox Space

High Winds Delay Delta 3 Launch

Boeing delayed launch of the Delta 3 at the last minute because of high winds in Cape Canaveral. Still gun-shy from its previous launch disaster, and with the potential of toxic material drifting over populated areas, Boeing wasn’t taking any chances, and rescheduled the launch for Tuesday.

MSNBC Space
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SpaceViews

Viking Location Wrong All Along

Astronomers have incorrectly reported Viking Lander 1’s location on Mars’ surface for over 20 years. Recent information from the Mars Pathfinder mission have enabled a more accurate landing position, 4.5 km away from its previously accepted location.

Astronomy Now

Russia Resupplies Aging Mir

Filled with fuel, food, water and other scientific equipment (including 18 live lizards), a Progress M-41 supply ship launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome on Friday. Private investors are considering maintaining the space station when it’s officially abandoned.

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SETI@home Nearly Ready, But Only for Unix

After three years of development, and over 300,000 people waiting to download the software, SETI@home – software which allows personal computers around the world to assist in detecting extrasolar life – is nearly ready… but only for Unix. Windows and Mac should be ready by the end of the month.

Seti@home Site
MSNBC Space

Indian Satellite Launches on Ariane

Arianespace launched an Indian Insat SE telecommunications and weather satellite on Friday. This is India’s 6th satellite, and marked the 44th successful launch of an Ariane 42P rocket.

Astronomy Now
MSNBC Space

Hardy Bacteria Proves Life Has Few Limits

In order to understand how life could exist on other worlds in our Solar System, scientists are studying the limits of life on Earth. Many creatures are thriving in environments which are similar to those found on other worlds, such as Europa and Mars.

CNN Space

NASA Readies Landsat 7 for Launch

Capable of producing extremely high-quality images of the Earth, the Landsat 7 satellite is designed to monitor environmental changes, from urban growth to deforestation. The satellite is set to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on April 15th.

CNN Space

Capturing Meteorites in Flight

Similar to the Stardust’s aerogel used to catch comet debris, earthbound NASA engineers are using a weather balloon and xerogel micrometeorite collector to capture leonid meteorites as they hurtle through our atmosphere.

NASA Space Science News
explorezone.com

Orion 3 will Launch on Boeing Delta 3

Second time’s the charm. After an aborted inaugural flight carrying the Galaxy X satellite, the new Boeing Delta 3 is ready to try again – this time with the Orion 3 satellite from Loral Space & Communications.

Astronomy Now
CNN Space
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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
CNN Space
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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Space Online
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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.

CNN Space
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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.

SpaceViews
BBC News

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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