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The International Space Station (ISS) failed to reach a higher orbit Wednesday during a test of two long-dormant engines mounted near a Russian-built docking port. Russian ISS flight controllers hoped to test two engines along the aft end of the station's Zvezda service module during a 14-second burn planned for 3:49 p.m. EDT (1949 GMT), NASA officials said. The engines have not been fired since Zvezda docked at the ISS in July 2000, they added. "We were all set for it but the engines never fired," NASA spokesperson Rob Navias told SPACE.com. The two dormant Zvezda engines are located at...

Entrepreneurial breakthroughs in technology have always hinged on producing workable designs at affordable cost, and this usually required “radically minimal” design. Such a focus allowed Jacques Cousteau to prove that an affordable SCUBA system could replace a submarine for personal exploration of the ocean deeps. It allowed the Apple and Sinclair computers to make the “personal computer” more than a science fiction idea. It made the “funky” Aeronca C-2 the first certified (and successful) light aircraft in 1929. A “Personal Spacecraft” could weigh less than this 184-kilogram airplane. For orbital launch, the complete fueled system would of course weigh one...

Iranian set to become first Muslim woman in orbit 25/03/2006 An Iranian entrepreneur Anoushe is set to become the first Muslim woman to travel in space. Ansari, founder and president of the US-based Telecom Technologies Company will be part of the crew of the Russian Soyuz space mission scheduled for 2007. "Exploring space has been my dream since childhood which I am about to realise," says Ansari 38, adding that to be "the first Middle Eastern woman to travel in space is a great honour." In 2005 Telecom Technologies sponsored the award of a 10 million dollar prize to the...

LOS ANGELES - A high-resolution camera aboard NASA's latest spacecraft to reach Mars sent back its first view of the Red Planet from orbit, the space agency said Friday. The crisp test image from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was taken late Thursday at an altitude of 1,547 miles and shows a 30.9-mile-by-11.7-mile area of the planet's mid-latitude southern highlands. The mosaic of 10 side-by-side exposures shows a cratered surface with ravine- or canyon-like channels on both sides. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said the smallest discernible objects are about 25 feet across, but that the camera will be able to capture...

Mars orbiter reaches Red Planet It will take six months for the MRO to attain its final orbit Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has survived a critical phase in its mission by parking itself in an elliptical orbit around the Red Planet. News of its success followed a tense period of radio silence while the spacecraft passed behind Mars. Over the next six months, the probe will steadily reduce the size of its orbit until it reaches an optimal position to start scientific studies. MRO will examine the Martian surface and atmosphere in unprecedented detail. At 2124 GMT (1334 PST),...

WASHINGTON - Try sleeping on your head, strapped in with a bungee cord, in a noisy little room with five other people. Oh, and the air's stale, the windows don't open and the world outside cycles from daylight to darkness 15 times a day. That's what former NASA astronaut Jerry Linenger endured for 143 nights in space, most of it aboard Mir, the old Russian space station. Mars-exploring astronauts would have to put up with the same nasty conditions for more than a year. Although NASA has almost no money for sleep research these days, a new low-budget study is...

Huntsville AL (SPX) Nov 17, 2005 We'll soon know the answer: A NASA/Stanford physics experiment called Gravity Probe B (GP-B) recently finished a year of gathering science data in Earth orbit. The results, which will take another year to analyze, should reveal the shape of space-time around Earth--and, possibly, the vortex. Time and space, according to Einstein's theories of relativity, are woven together, forming a four-dimensional fabric called "space-time." The tremendous mass of Earth dimples this fabric, much like a heavy person sitting in the middle of a trampoline. Gravity, says Einstein, is simply the motion of objects following the...

The Russian military satellite Mozhayets-5 that was launched on Thursday failed to separate from its booster rocket Kosmos-3M. The satellite is currently rotating in a near-earth orbit with the booster’s third stage and is sending no signals to Earth. Officials say there was no emergency situation during the launch. All the other seven satellites were orbited successfully. The booster was launched from the Plesetsk space center. The rocket also carried the Iranian Sina-1, China’s DMC, Norway’s NCube-2, the European Space Agency’s SSYTI Express, the UK’s TopSat, Germany’s UWE-1, and Japan’s XI-V. The launch of the Chinese-origin Sina had been twice...

Scientists are over the moon at the W.M. Keck Observatory and the California Institute of Technology over a new discovery of a satellite orbiting the Solar System's 10th planet (2003 UB313). The newly discovered moon orbits the farthest object ever seen in the Solar System. The existence of the moon will help astronomers resolve the question of whether 2003 UB313, temporarily nicknamed "Xena," is more massive than Pluto and hence the 10th planet. A paper describing the discovery was submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Letters on October 3, 2005. "We were surprised because this is a completely different type of...

Saturday, 15 October 2005, 08:48 GMT 09:48 UK Space date set for Scotty's ashes Star Trek actor James Doohan, who played Scotty in the series, will have his final wish granted when his ashes are sent into space on 6 December. Doohan died of Alzheimer's disease and pneumonia in July, aged 85. His ashes will be accompanied by thousands of tributes from fans of the sci-fi show. "James spent so much time with fans and many want to come to his space blast," a Space Services Inc spokeswoman said. The firm will fire the ashes into orbit from a California...

The US Air Force has launched a micro-satellite that could lead to an autonomous robotic mechanic that fixes satellites in orbit. The launch is the first of two such technology-demonstration satellites to lift off this week. The 138-kilogram XSS-11 - which stands for Experimental Spacecraft Systems 11 - blasted off at 0635 PDT (1435 GMT) on Monday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, US, aboard a Minotaur rocket. “Nobody’s ever done anything like this in space,” says Vernon Baker, XSS-11 programme manager at the Space Vehicles Directorate at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, US. He says developing an...

Buried deep in the appalling announcement of Cuba's new place on the UN's Human Rights Commission was the name of the country that nominated that outpost of tyranny for the honor: Argentina. It's not the first time the southernmost country in the New World has done the bidding of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Last December, a Cuban dissident who sought de-facto asylum in Havana's Argentine embassy was unexpectedly denied an exit visa and forced back into the hands of Castro's waiting agents. Such events underline Argentina's political direction. A few years ago, Argentina was one of the U.S.'s major non-NATO...

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - The Cassini spacecraft successfully fired its engine for 51 minutes Monday to raise its orbit so it will not pass through Saturn's rings on its next close approach to the planet and to set itself on course for another flyby of the big moon Titan on Oct. 26, NASA said. Confirmation of the successful burn was received at 11:51 a.m. PDT, according to a statement from Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the international mission. The maneuver was designed to raise its altitude during the next close approach to Saturn by 186,000 miles. Cassini arrived at Saturn...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2004 May 23 Working in Space Credit: , NASA Explanation: High above planet Earth, a human helps an ailing machine. The machine, in this potentially touching story, is the Hubble Space Telescope, which is not in the picture. The human is Astronaut Steven L. Smith, and he is retrieving a power tool from the handrail of the Remote Manipulator System before resuming in 1999 December. For most astronauts,...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2004 March 27 Mir Dreams Credit: STS-76 Crew, NASA Explanation: This dream-like image of Mir was recorded by astronauts as the Space Shuttle Atlantis approached the Russian space station prior to docking during the STS-76 mission. Sporting spindly appendages and solar panels, Mir resembles a whimsical flying insect hovering about 350 kilometers above New Zealand's South Island and the city of Nelson near Cook Strait. In late March...

Space dust to unlock Mexican pyramid secrets Muon detector could point scientists to hidden burial chambersTwo vendors sit near the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan, where physicists are using a muon detector to look for hidden burial chambers. TEOTIHUACAN, Mexico - Remnants of space dust that constantly shower the world are helping unlock the secrets of a 2,000-year-old Mexican pyramid where the rulers of a mysterious civilization may lie buried. Deep under the huge Pyramid of the Sun, north of Mexico City, physicists are installing a device to detect muons, subatomic particles that are left over when cosmic...

Ancient desert markings imaged from orbit20 February 2004 Visible from ESA's Proba spacecraft 600 kilometres away in space are the largest of the many Nasca Lines; ancient desert markings now at risk from human encroachment as well as flood events feared to be increasing in frequency. Designated a World Heritage Site in 1994, the Lines are a mixture of animal figures and long straight lines etched across an area of about 70 km by 30 km on the Nasca plain, between the Andes and Pacific Coast at the southern end of Peru. The oldest lines date from around 400 BC...

Shiny and crinkly, the material looks more like something meant to wrap frozen foods than to provide a new way to travel through space. The aluminized Mylar reflects sunlight, thereby deriving a little kick from the recoiling photons. In principle, big sheets could act as solar sails that over time would reach speeds exceeding 100 kilometers a second—far faster than chemical rockets. The first solar sail, called Cosmos 1, will go for its test flight in early 2004. The demonstration of a revolutionary way to travel to the planets and maybe even to the stars would seem to be a...

Dear China, I know that you're proud of yourselves for beating us into space. Who wouldn't be? You've beaten the capitalist pigs at their own game. Communism is clearly superior. I welcome you to 1962. And I send my heartfelt thanks to Bill Clinton for getting you there. If you haven't already guessed, that last paragraph was dripping with sarcasm (except that last sentence). So, while your still living 40 years ago, a lot has happenned, so I'll get you up to speed right now. 1) Yes, Jack Kennedy did have sexual relations with Marilyn Monroe. 2) The Bennifer Lofleck...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 August 10 Lunation Credit & Copyright: António Cidadão Explanation: Our Moon's appearance changes nightly. This time-lapse sequence shows what our Moon looks like during a lunation, a complete lunar cycle. As the Moon orbits the Earth, the half illuminated by the Sun first becomes increasingly visible, then decreasingly visible. The Moon always keeps the same face toward the Earth. The Moon's apparent size changes slightly, though, and...