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28 new planets discovered

Planet hunters spy distant haul
By BBC News


The ice-giant Gliese 436 is 30 light years from Earth


A haul of 28 new planets beyond our solar system has been detected by the world's most prolific planet hunters. The finds were among 37 objects seen orbiting distant stars by a US and Anglo-Australian team in the last year. Other objects reported by the group, at an American Astronomical Society meeting in Honolulu, included five failed stars, known as brown dwarfs.

The finds increase the total number of known exoplanets to 236, more than half of which were discovered by the team. "The more we look, the more we find planets," said Professor Tinney of the University of New South Wales, head of the Australian part of the Anglo-Australian Planet Search.

"Super-Earth"

Among the finds were at least four multiple-planetary systems. All of the planets were so-called gas giants, similar to Jupiter, with no solid surface. "Something like 10 to 15% of stars host gas giants," said Professor Tinney. "A larger fraction of stars may host planets too small for us to detect." These could include Earth-sized objects, which could harbour life. More...
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BBC

Shuttle Atlantis lifts off for an 11-day mission in space


• Shuttle heads for space station - » Video • Lift off


» NASA TV Public Channel


Video: » Shuttle docks with the Space Station (ISS)


• In graphics: Space Station
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On the Net:
Shuttle mission: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shutt ... index.html

Space Shuttle's Return May Be Delayed
By Mike Schneider, AP, Jun 14,





Houston (AP) -- Russian computers that control the international space station's orientation and supply of oxygen and water have failed, potentially extending the space shuttle's mission - or cutting it short. Russian engineers aren't sure why the computers stopped working. A failure of this type has never occurred before on the space station. The station is operated primarily by the Russian and U.S. space agencies, with contributions from the Canadian, European and Japanese space agencies. "We have plenty of resources, so we have plenty of time to sort this out," said Mike Suffredini, NASA manager of the space station program. But the computer failure could extend space shuttle Atlantis' mission by at least a day and, in a worst-case scenario, force the space station's three crew members to return to Earth early if the computers aren't fixed.

Atlantis' mission had already been extended from 11 to 13 days so that astronauts can go on a spacewalk to repair a thermal blanket covering an engine pod that peeled up during launch. Suffredini said he expected the problem to be fixed in the next couple of days. In a worst-case scenario, if at least one of the computers wasn't operating after the shuttle left, the space station's three crew members could return to Earth, he said. Thrusters on the docked space shuttle, along with the space station's gyroscopes, have been fired periodically to help maintain the space station's positioning since the computers failed earlier this week. The space station needs the maneuvering thrusters controlled by the Russian computers for docking and avoiding space debris. Without the Russian oxygen-machine running, the space station has a 56-day supply of oxygen left. "If we are in that position, we have an option to depart," Suffredini said.

Russian engineers think the computers' failure could have been triggered by a power source. The space station earlier this week got a new pair of solar arrays that were delivered by Atlantis and unfolded Tuesday to help provide power. During a spacewalk on Wednesday, astronauts Patrick Forrester and Steven Swanson started to bring to life a rotating joint that will allow the new pair of solar arrays to track the sun. Astronauts will finish prepping the joint on another spacewalk. Forrester and Swanson also helped retract a 115-foot wing of an old solar array that will be folded up into a storage box and moved to another location later this year. Only 13 of the array's 31 sections were folded up, so flight controllers and astronauts will try to fold up the rest of the solar wing by remote commands on Thursday. NASA managers decided Wednesday to use a spacewalk on Friday to repair a torn thermal blanket located over an engine pod near the shuttle's tail.

The astronauts will secure the blanket using staples found in the shuttle's medical kit and loop-headed pins that come from the shuttle's tile repair kit. If those methods don't work, NASA flight controllers will have the astronauts sew it into place using a stainless steel wire and an instrument that resembles a small needle. Engineers don't think the damaged section of the thermal blanket, which protects part of the shuttle from the blazing heat of re-entry, would endanger the spacecraft during landing. But it could cause enough damage to require schedule-busting repairs. NASA has focused intensely on any problems that could jeopardize a shuttle's re-entry into Earth's atmosphere since shuttle damage resulted in the 2003 Columbia disaster that killed seven astronauts.
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• Reuters: Major computer problem looms over space station

No Fix Yet for Space Station Computers
By M.Schneider and Vladimir Isachenkov
AP. Writers, Jun 15, 2007





Houston (AP) -- Cosmonauts aboard the international space station struggled for a second day Friday to try to reboot failed computers that control the orbiting outpost's orientation. The Russians worked on the system through the night but only succeeded in getting one of three power channels to the station's computers operating before flight controllers told them to get some sleep, NASA flight director Holly Ridings said.

Valery Lyndin, spokesman for Russia's Mission Control outside Moscow, said Friday that support staff on the ground had so far been unable to pinpoint the source of the computer failure. "The lives of the crew are not in danger," Lyndin stressed. He said there were no plans to evacuate the space station. A NASA official also said the chance of abandoning the space station was remote. The station's oxygen-regeneration and all basic life-support systems are functioning properly, but the orientation system was affected by the computer problems, Lyndin said. The troubled computers, in the Russian segment, control thrusters that are fired to orient the station and its solar panels toward the sun for maximum energy production. Gyroscopes on the station's American segments are functioning, and the station is in a more-or-less proper position, he said.

"We've had computer failures before, and we have coped with the problem, but now the situation is much more complicated," cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov said on NTV television. "We have the shuttle docked to the station, and active work is going on at the station - the Americans' space walk. We must maintain the station's orientation." While space shuttle Atlantis is still docked, its thrusters can help, if needed, to maintain the station's position. NASA said the engineers tried turning off and on the power between the U.S. and Russian sections before rebooting the computers to test if perhaps a bad connection between the Russian side and a pair of new solar arrays might be the problem. They were still testing that theory Friday morning. "A power line has a certain magnetic field around it, and that can affect systems near it," said Mike Suffredini, NASA's space station program manager. "This is the leading theory today." The new solar arrays were connected by the Atlantis crew Monday. If the power feed from those arrays turns out to be the problem, the Russian section can still get power from other solar arrays.

Cameras, computer laptops and some lights on Atlantis were turned off Thursday to save energy in case it needs to stay an extra day at the station to help maintain the outpost's orientation while the problem with the Russian computers is addressed. The mission had already been extended from 11 to 13 days to repair the thermal blanket. NASA has said that in a worst-case scenario, the space station's three crew members might have to return to Earth early if the computers can't be fixed. Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for space operations, called the chances of abandoning the space station because of the computer problem "remote." "We're still a long way from where we would have to de-man the space station," Gerstenmaier said. This type of massive computer failure had never been seen before on the space station, although individual computers do fail periodically. "These sorts of things happen," said astronaut Ed Lu, who lived at the space station for six months in 2003. "I don't think it's that serious." Friday afternoon, astronauts James Reilly and Danny Olivas planned to climb out of the space station to staple down a thermal blanket that peeled back during Atlantis' launch.

The blanket, covering an engine pod, protects part of the shuttle from the blazing heat of re-entry. While engineers don't believe it would endanger the spacecraft during landing, it could cause enough damage to require repairs on the ground. NASA has focused intensely on any problems that could jeopardize a shuttle's re-entry into Earth's atmosphere since shuttle damage resulted in the 2003 Columbia disaster that killed seven astronauts. Training for spacewalk tasks can take months, but Olivas only has had a day to prepare for the repair job. Mission Control had only a few days to develop the procedures, which will use a medical stapler and loop-headed pins to secure the blanket corners in place against protective tile. While Olivas repairs the blanket, Reilly will install on the outside of the station's U.S. section a valve that will be used for its oxygen-generating machine. Once both tasks are done, the astronauts will help retract a 115-foot solar wing that NASA wants folded up into a storage box so it can be moved later. The array is now only halfway folded up after two days of efforts by Mission Control and astronauts at the space station.

Mission Control hopes the spacewalking astronauts can help shake loose some stuck wires on the solar wing. The computer problems also created a small inconvenience for the shuttle astronauts: Because the routine dumping of the astronauts' waste from the space shuttle requires a change in orientation, the Atlantis crew was told to use the toilet in the Russian section of the space station so that the shuttle's doesn't overflow.

-- Associated Press Writer Vladimir Isachenkov contributed to this report from Moscow.

Reuters News:
• Fix sought for critical space station computers
• Russian experts try to fix space station computers
• NASA document on crew health in deep space exploration

U.S. Astronaut Sets Spaceflight Record
By Mike Schneider, AP Jun 16, 2007





Houston (AP) -- Atlantis was cleared Saturday to return to Earth this coming week after the space shuttle's heat shield was judged capable of surviving the intense heat of re-entry, and a U.S. astronaut reached a milestone with the longest single spaceflight by any woman. Atlantis is set to land at Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Thursday, although NASA officials were still deciding whether to keep the shuttle at the international space station for an extra day because of a failure of computers that control the station's orientation and oxygen production.

"That's great news," Atlantis commander Rick Sturckow said of the landing plan. The shuttle's 11-day space station construction mission had already been extended to 13 days so a thermal-protection blanket could be fixed during an unscheduled spacewalk. NASA has been particularly sensitive about the space shuttles' heat shields since the Columbia accident killed seven astronauts in 2003. Also Saturday, U.S. astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams set a record for the longest single spaceflight by any woman. Williams, who has lived at the space station since December, surpassed the record of 188 days set by astronaut Shannon Lucid at the Mir space station in 1996.

"It's just that I'm in the right place at the right time," Williams, 41, said when Mission Control in Houston congratulated her on the record. "Even when the station has little problems, it's just a beautiful, wonderful place to live." Those "little problems" had been considerable in recent days with the computer system failure on the Russian side of the station. Russian cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov got four of six processors on two computers working again on Friday, and on Saturday they got the remaining two on line. Engineers in Moscow and Houston had not yet conclusively determined what caused the failure, although the leading theory was changes to the electrical system from the space station's growth. The cosmonauts started turning on systems - such as an oxygen machine, a water processor and a carbon dioxide remover - that had been turned off while the computers were down.

On Sunday, they planned to test the station's orientation system, which will be the final benchmark for deciding whether the computers work properly and whether the shuttle needs to stay an extra day. "The bottom line is it appears that the command and control type computers are functioning just fine," said Mike Suffredini, NASA's space station program manager. In preparation for Tuesday's scheduled undocking of the shuttle, astronauts and cosmonauts spent Saturday moving supplies and trash between the shuttle and station after several days of grueling work. Friday's tasks had included spacewalks to repair the torn thermal blanket on Atlantis and to retract a 115-foot solar energy wing that will be moved to a different location on the space station. Williams' former crew mate at the space station, astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, holds the U.S. record for longest continuous stay in space with 215 days. The longest stay in space was 437 days by Russian Valeri Polyakov. In February, Williams set another record for the most time spent spacewalking by a woman, kicking off a year of achievements by women in space. In October, U.S. astronaut Peggy Whitson will become the first woman to command the space station.

Later that month, Air Force Col. Pam Melroy will become only the second woman to command a space shuttle mission; Eileen Collins was the first, in 1999. If Whitson and Melroy's time at the space station overlap, it could be the first time there are two female commanders in space at the same time. "The first time we have two female commanders in orbit - that will be neat," Whitson said. Almost three decades after the first women joined the astronaut corps in 1978, only 17 of the 94 current active astronauts are women. Lucid says part of the problem may be the pipeline that delivers pilots to the astronaut corps - the U.S. military. Women didn't start entering the military service academies until the late 1970s. "I think it's really great that all of this happening, but obviously, you wonder, why did it take so many years?" asked Lucid, who is in astronaut office management.

"At some point, you would like the field to be such that it doesn't make any difference whether you're male or female." On the ground, Mission Control had its first female flight director in 1985. All three space station flight directors working the current Atlantis mission, and the lead shuttle flight director, are women. Women make up about a third of NASA's 33 flight directors, who are responsible for running the spaceflight missions. "So many times, the room is filled with female flight controllers," Lucid said. "I just think it's just a wonderful thing that people are getting the chance to do what they're capable of doing."


• BBC News: Woman breaks space flight record
• Reuters: Space station computer crash a mystery

Hectic Week for New Space Station Member
By Mike Schneider, AP, Jun 17,





Houston (AP) -- For the international space station's newest crew member, his first week aboard the orbiting outpost was anything but routine. The failure of computers that control the space station's ability to orient itself and produce oxygen had brought up the possibility that new crew member Clayton Anderson and his Russian counterparts, Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov, might be forced to abandon their orbiting home.

But Yurchikhin and Kotov, after long hours and several sleepless nights last week, got four of six processors on two computers working again on Friday. They got the remaining two on line Saturday. "I think I'm hanging in there. It kind of reminds me of one of my first swimming lessons when I just got tossed in the water and they told me to kind of survive," Anderson said of his first week in space. "We're going to get through all this, just like NASA always does." NASA officials think the computers are in good shape, but on Sunday they planned to test the station's orientation system. That will be the final benchmark for deciding whether the computers work properly and whether space shuttle Atlantis - currently docked with the station - needs to stay an extra day to continue offering help.

Also Sunday, two shuttle astronauts planned to conduct the fourth and final spacewalk of their mission to the space station. The spacewalk's main goal will be to activate a rotating joint on the outpost's newest segment, allowing a new pair of solar wings to track the sun. Atlantis was cleared Saturday to return to Earth later this week after engineers determined the space shuttle's heat shield could survive the intense heat of re-entry. The shuttle's 11-day space station construction mission was extended to 13 days so a thermal-protection blanket could be fixed during a spacewalk. NASA has been particularly sensitive about the space shuttles' heat shields since the Columbia accident killed seven astronauts in 2003. Atlantis is set to land at Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Thursday. Engineers in Moscow and Houston have not pinpointed what caused computers on the space station's Russian side to fail. A leading culprit was changes to the electrical system from the space station's growth. "I feel pretty confident with where we are," said Mike Suffredini, NASA's space station program manager. With the computers working again, various systems - such as an oxygen machine, a water processor and a carbon dioxide remover - resumed operating.

U.S. astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams, who on Saturday set the record for longest single spaceflight by a woman, passing astronaut Shannon Lucid's record of 188 days in orbit, said the problem with the space station's computers was an example of how people sometimes forget that spaceflight remains risky. "We take spaceflight for granted and it's still pretty darn dangerous. (The space station is) not just a tourist vacation place. It's a serious place and we're doing serious business and serious science up here," said Williams, who was replaced by Anderson as the U.S. member of the space station crew.

Reuters

Europe latest to unveil space tourism proposal
By Reed Stevenson, Jun 21, 2007




EADS Astrium aircraft that will carry passengers briefly outside the earth's atmosphere from 2012.


Le Bourget, France (Reuters) - Space is becoming less of a frontier, with Europe's aerospace company becoming the latest to propose a way for ordinary people -- albeit those with deep pockets -- to experience spaceflight. Astrium, the space systems arm of European aerospace company EADS, says it wants to build a four-passenger rocket-equipped jet to send space tourists to an altitude of 100 km (60 miles) above the earth for three minutes of weightlessness and a rare view of Earth's curvature.

"We think there is a market for this, people are willing to pay," said Astrium's designer for the project, Jerome Bertrand. At the Paris air show this week, Astrium's mock-up of the proposed spacecraft's front section showed specially designed seats that swivel to minimize discomfort for passengers traveling at three times the speed of sound. Astrium is seeking partners and hopes to be able to launch the project work next year, with the first space flights starting in 2012.




The interior of an Astrium aircraft as seen at the 47th Paris Air Show at Le Bourget airport, June 20, 2007


Once in space, the passengers can unbuckle to float around and gaze through any of the Astrium jet's 15 windows before the pilot guides the craft back to Earth. The cost? As much as 200,000 euros ($268,000) for the flight, including a week's training. Although steep, that is still a bargain compared to the $20 million that Russia charges for a seat on its Soyuz TMA-10 rocket for a trip to the International Space Station. But next year, if preparations remain on schedule, Virgin Galactic, part of billionaire businessman Richard Branson's Virgin Group, will begin taking space tourists into suborbital space for $200,000 per ticket.Virgin Galactic's six-passenger spacecraft is based on SpaceShipOne, which three years ago on Thursday took off from California's Mojave desert to punch through the atmosphere to become the world's first privately funded spacecraft.

Astrium's executive jet-sized craft is designed to take off from a normal runway, powered by two turbofan jet engines. Once it reaches an altitude of 12 km (8 miles), it ignites a rocket derived from EADS Astrium's Ariane series burning liquid oxygen and methane to push the craft to 100 km above Earth. Virgin Galactic's proposal is slightly different, where the craft is attached to a larger plane for take-off from the ground. It detaches at 50,000 feet from the carrier aircraft before rocketing into sub-orbital space.


For more facts, Video » Global Coverage: Space tourism



On the Net: EADS aerospace - http://www.eads.net/1024/en/Trailer_EADS.html

The shuttle Atlantis is seen from a camera aboard the International Space Station


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The European Space Agency is developing a craft that could take civilians into space from 2012.

» Global Coverage: Space tourism » Space flights


The ISS seen from Earth by telescope on 12.06.07


Image of the ISS as seen from a camera aboard the space shuttle.

AP

Space shuttle Atlantis, 7 Astronauts return to Earth
By Alicia Chang, AP Science Writer, Jun 22


• BBC: Atlantis hits Earth in California • Reuters News


Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. (AP) -- Atlantis and its seven astronauts returned to Earth safely Friday, ending a two-week mission to deliver an addition to the international space station and bring a crew member home from the outpost. Atlantis crossed the Pacific and glided to a stop at 12:49 p.m. on a runway at Edwards Air Force Base in California. NASA managers had hoped to land the shuttle in Florida, but bad weather forced them to abandon that plan.

"Welcome back," Mission Control told Atlantis. "Congratulations on a great mission." Controllers praised the crew for providing a "stepping stone to the rest of NASA's exploration plan." Atlantis' return from NASA's first manned flight of the year was marked by its trademark twin sonic booms that were heard from San Diego to Los Angeles. After deploying its parachute, the shuttle came to rest on the concrete runway under mostly sunny skies. Astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams returned to Earth on Atlantis after spending more than six months at the space station. She set an endurance record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman at 195 days. During her stay, she also set the record for most time spacewalking by a woman. She told reporters two days before landing that she looked forward to a slice of pizza and walking on the beach with her husband and dog, Gorby. But she was going to miss the space station. "When you've been somewhere for six months, it becomes your home and it's hard to leave," Williams said.

Shortly after landing, ground crews checked the spacecraft to ensure it was free of toxic gases. The astronauts were given the green light to change out of their orange spacesuits and will undergo medical checkups. Returning with Williams were Atlantis commander Rick Sturckow, pilot Lee Archambault and mission specialists Patrick Forrester, James Reilly, Steven Swanson and Danny Olivas. Atlantis delivered a 35,000-pound addition to the space station and Clay Anderson, who replaced Williams as the U.S. representative at the station. He will live with cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov for the next four months. The last time a shuttle landed at Edwards Air Force Base was in 2005, the first flight after the Columbia disaster in 2003. Atlantis' landing was the 51st time a shuttle has touched down in the Mojave Desert. While at the space station, the astronauts installed a new truss segment, unfurled a new pair of power-generating solar arrays and activated a rotating joint that allows the new solar arrays to track the sun. The shuttle originally had been scheduled to launch in mid-March, but a hail storm a few weeks beforehand forced NASA to scrub that date.

The shuttle was moved back to its hangar so that technicians could make repairs to thousands of dings on its external fuel tank. Atlantis lifted off on June 8. NASA hopes to have three more launches this year. Two days were added to the 11-day mission so that Olivas could staple up a thermal blanket that had peeled back during launch. An extra spacewalk - the fourth of the mission - was added to get the task done. The mission was extended to 14 days after weather prevented Atlantis from landing on Thursday. Computers that control orientation and oxygen production on the Russian side of the space station crashed while Atlantis was at the outpost, forcing NASA officials to talk publicly about the remote possibility that the station would have to be abandoned because of the problem.

Engineers in Houston and Moscow worked around the clock to come up with a fix. Atlantis' thrusters helped maintain the station's orientation until the computers resumed operating last weekend. Some lights, computers and cameras were turned off Atlantis to extend the power supply in case an extra day was needed at the station to give engineers on the ground more time to figure out what went wrong. The station's computers were restored when Yurchikhin and Kotov used a cable to bypass a circuit board. The shuttle wasn't cleared to undock from the station until the computers had passed a test to control thrusters on the station's Russian side.
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• Video: Spectacular views captured as the shuttle performs a fly-around of the station.
• Private sector to bridge gap in U.S. space flight

Reuters

Progress made toward lunar liquid mirror telescope
By Will Dunham, Jun 21, 2007




Researchers led by the university's Ermanno Borra have developed a way to create a highly reflective liquid mirror.


Washington (Reuters) - Scientists have taken a giant leap toward making possible the dream of building a powerful telescope on the moon that could withstand even the harshest of lunar conditions.

Writing in Thursday's edition of the journal Nature, they said they coated a special type of liquid surface with a layer of silver to make a highly reflective mirror like one that could be used in any future, moon-based telescope. "It's the breakthrough that we need," lead researcher Ermanno Borra of Universite Laval in Quebec, Canada, said in a telephone interview. "If you want to have a liquid mirror telescope on the moon, you need the right liquid. If you don't have the right liquid, forget it. It's as simple as that." Borra envisions a telescope with a liquid mirror measuring 66 feet to 328 feet wide. Such a telescope, which has drawn NASA's interest, could provide astronomers on Earth unprecedented views into distant reaches of the universe, studying objects far more faint even than NASA's planned James Webb Space Telescope, due for a 2013 launch. Astronomers hope such an instrument could allow them to study the early phases of the universe after the Big Bang.

Advocates say a large telescope on the moon would be more cheaply and easily built using a liquid mirror rather than a conventional glass one. The researchers think any liquid-mirror telescope on the moon would not come before 2020 at the earliest. The scientists made use of a liquid made of "ionic salts" that remains fluid at super-low temperatures. They deposited a thin layer of chromium particles on the liquid, then added a layer of silver particles to complete the mirror. Liquid mirror telescopes differ from conventional ones in that their primary mirrors, which gather and focus light, are made of reflective liquid instead of polished glass. The liquid can be poured into a spinning container, spreading out to make a thin, smooth, parabolic shape that can be used as a telescope mirror, the researchers said. The silver layer that is created is completely smooth, highly reflective, can stay stable for months, and the ionic liquid that it covers does not evaporate, the researchers said.

» Live Video: NASA TV from Space


The mystery of UFOs. » Video trailer
» See what people think • Search: UFO evidence • http://ufosnw.com


Exhibit - Alien Images: UFOs, Photography and Belief
ASU Museum of Anthropology, Tempe USA, 8. 03, 15. 08. 2007 - Education Packet (PDF file)

» Reuters: U.S. space shuttle hitches ride to Florida

The space shuttle Atlantis takes off atop its modified Boeing 747 carrier aircraft from Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. on the first leg of its ferry flight back to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Sunday, July 1, 2007.


» Yahoo Slideshow: Space Shuttle

Reuters

Putin revives Russia's long-haul bomber flights
By Guy Faulconbridge, Aug 17, 2007


» Reuters Video


Chenarkul, Russia (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Friday security threats had forced Russia to revive the Soviet-era practice of sending bomber aircraft on regular patrols beyond its borders. Putin said 14 strategic bombers had taken off simultaneously from airfields across Russia in the early hours of Friday on long-range missions.

"We have decided to restore flights by Russian strategic aviation on a permanent basis," Putin told reporters after inspecting joint military exercises with China and four Central Asian states in Russia's Ural mountains. "Today, August 17 at 00:00 hours, 14 strategic bombers took to the air from seven airfields across the country, along with support and refueling aircraft ... From today such patrols will be carried out on a regular basis. "We hope our partners will treat this with understanding."


• Putin called for Russia to maintain "supremacy in producing military aircraft"


In Washington, officials said they did not anticipate any threat to U.S. security from the Russian flights. "If Russia feels as though they want to take some of these old aircraft out of mothballs and get them flying again, that's their decision," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.

But the sorties are likely to add to Western concern about Russia's growing assertiveness. That trend has prompted some U.S. policymakers to draw parallels with the Cold War. Putin caused a stir this year by saying Russian missiles would again be aimed at targets in Europe if Washington pursues plans to build a missile defense shield in eastern Europe. Continued...


» Photos

Two Russian fighter planes are refueled by a tanker plane in International waters outside the coast of Norway in this photo taken by the Norwegian Air Force August 17, 2006.

• Aljazeera.net: Russia 'resumes bomber flights'
• Spiegel Online: The occupation and its offspring - Lost Red Army children search for fathers
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• AP: NASA considering ending mission early » Related Video


- In this image made available Thursday, Aug. 16, 2007 by NASA, Space Shuttle Endeavour, docked to the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station, is backdropped by a blue and white Earth during the STS-118 mission's third planned session of extravehicular activity Wednesday Aug. 15, 2007. The shuttle's Canadian-built Remote Manipulator System (RMS) robotic arm and station's Canadarm2 are also featured in the scene. The SPACEHAB pressurized logistics module is visible in Endeavour's payload bay. - Slideshow: Space Shuttle Endeavour


» Shuttle Missions - To much of a risk? Lesson from space

Astronaut Scott Kelly, STS-118 commander, is photographed near a window on the International Space Station


NASA awards $1.8B for moon mission motor
By AP News

NASA has awarded defense contractor Alliant Techsystems Inc. $1.8 billion to develop a motor for the Orion capsule, which will replace the space shuttle and be able to reach the moon and Mars, the company said. The first-stage propulsion system will lift astronauts solely with solid fuel instead of a combination of solid and more volatile liquid fuel, the company said in a news release. The company, also known as ATK, said the contract runs through 2012 and calls for it to deliver five new motors and other equipment for test flights. Continued...

Movie: » The Orion Space Capsule

BBC

Rare dead star found near Earth
By BBC News, 20 August 2007


Neutron stars form when massive stars exhaust their fuel


Astronomers have spotted a space oddity in Earth's neighbourhood - a dead star with some unusual characteristics. The object, known as a neutron star, was studied using space telescopes and ground-based observatories. But this one, located in the constellation Ursa Minor, seems to lack some key characteristics found in other neutron stars.

Details of the study, by a team of American and Canadian researchers, will appear in the Astrophysical Journal. If confirmed, it would be only the eighth known "isolated neutron star" - meaning a neutron star that does not have an associated supernova remnant, binary companion, or radio pulsations. The object has been nicknamed Calvera, after the villain in the 1960s western film The Magnificent Seven. "The seven previously known isolated neutron stars are known collectively as The Magnificent Seven within the community," said co-author Derek Fox, of Pennsylvania State University, US. "So the name Calvera is a bit of an inside joke on our part." The authors estimate that the object is 250 to 1,000 light-years away.

This would make Calvera one of the closest neutron stars to Earth - and possibly the closest. Neutron stars are one of the possible end points for a star. They are created when stars with masses greater than four to eight times those of our Sun exhaust their nuclear fuel, and undergo a supernova explosion. This explosion blows off the outer layers of the star, forming a supernova remnant. The central region of the star collapses under gravity, causing protons and electrons to combine to form neutrons - hence the name "neutron star"


Swift was launched to observe gamma-ray bursts

Robert Rutledge of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, originally noticed the object. He compared a catalogue of 18,000 X-ray sources from the German-American Rosat satellite, which operated from 1990 to 1999, with catalogues of objects that appeared in visible light, infrared light, and radio waves. Professor Rutledge realized that a Rosat source, known as 1RXS J141256.0+792204, did not appear to have a counterpart at any other wavelength. The group aimed Nasa's Swift satellite at the object in August 2006.

Swift's X-ray telescope showed that the source was still there, and was emitting about the same amount of X-ray energy as it had during the Rosat era. The Swift observations enabled the group to pinpoint the object's position more accurately, and showed that it was not associated with any known astronomical object. The researchers followed up with the 8.1m Gemini North Telescope in Hawaii and a short observation by Nasa's Chandra X-ray Observatory. Continued...


On the Net: The Astrophysical Journal


• Shuttle undocks for early return » AP Video• Live NASA TV

The shuttle is to return to Earth a day early, amid fears Hurricane Dean could threaten Mission Control.

AP

Damaged shuttle Endeavour lands in Florida.
By Marcia Dunn, AP Aerospace Writer


» NASA TV » The Shuttle Cockpit


Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP) -- Space shuttle Endeavour returned to Earth on Tuesday, ending a nearly two-week orbital drama that centered on a deep gouge in the shuttle's belly and an early homecoming prompted by a hurricane.

The space shuttle swooped out of the partly cloudy sky and touched down on the runway at 12:32 p.m. (U.S) The main concern for much of the mission was the gouge to Endeavour's protective tiles. NASA did not want the shuttle to suffer any structural damage that, while not catastrophic, might require lengthy postflight repairs. More...


» Earth from Space: Astronauts Describe the View

- Space shuttle Endeavour returned to Earth on Tuesday, ending a nearly two-week orbital drama that centered on a deep gouge in the shuttle's belly and an early homecoming prompted by a hurricane. (Aug. 21) -

Images from the Space Shuttle in Space


Launch of the space shuttle


Inside the cockpit of the space shuttle


The space shuttle on its way to the ISS


The International Space Station (ISS)


The space shuttle docking to the ISS



An astronaut looks through the window of the ISS » AP Video


Parts of the American continent viewed from space


Clouds above the Earth viewed from the ISS


• female astronaut at work inside the ISS


An astronaut making photos inside the ISS


An education event from space shuttle Endeavour with a group of children on Earth


Two Astronauts working in space on the ISS




The crew of the space shuttle Endeavour and the International Space Station's Expedition 15 crew shake hands as they bid farewell before closing the hatches between the two spacecraft



Space shuttle pilot and mission specialist work on the flight deck of the shuttle.


The space shuttle undocks from the space station


The shuttle on its way back to Earth » CNN Video • Story


Mother Earth's latest NASA image from space


The space shuttle touches down at the Kennedy Space Center » BBC » CNN


• BBC News: How the shuttle returns to Earth

To return to Earth the space shuttle must make a series of complicated manouevres to align itself into the correct position to achieve a safe descent.

1. The shuttle flies upside down in orbit to control its heating.
2. To re-enter the atmosphere, the shuttle is turned tail first to the direction of travel, and fires its engines to slow its speed.
3. The orbiter is then flipped the right way up and enters the top layer of the atmosphere at about a 40-degree angle from horizontal with its wings level. 4. - 6. more...
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• CNN News: Teacher-astronaut described her 13-day flight as "absolutely wonderful" • All About: NASA